Competency Restoration and Repeated 730 Exam Cycles in NY

Stephan M. Carlson, MD, MBA, FAPA · Criminal Competency and Responsibility

Short answer: competency restoration returns a defendant to fitness to proceed after a 730 exam finds incapacity. When cycles repeat, the second competency evaluation should explain what changed clinically, not simply restate the first finding. A single finding of unfitness is a snapshot. The harder forensic problem begins when a defendant is restored, returns to court, decompensates, and is found unfit again. Repeated 730 cycles raise a question the first evaluation never had to answer: is this defendant restorable at all, or is the system simply re-running a process that will keep failing? What restoration is, and what the statute requires When two examiners and the court agree that a defe

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