8.5 1. The Court’s Obligation

• Library: Disability Law and Practice, Vol. 3 (NY) 2017

1.. The Court’s Obligation

The court is obliged to raise the issue of incompetency sua sponte

[i]f at any time before final judgment in a criminal action it shall appear to the court that there is reasonable ground for believing that a defendant is in such a state of idiocy, imbecility or insanity that he is incapable of understanding the charge, indictment or proceedings or of making his defense.¹⁰

The court in People v. Arnold¹¹ articulated the test to be applied as, “Did the trial judge receive information which, objectively considered, should reasonably have raised a doubt about defendant’s competency and alerted him to the possibility that the defendant could neither understand the proceedings or appreciate their significance, nor rationally aid his attorney in his defense?”¹² The Arnold court found that three factors have evolved from the case law that should be considered in determining incompetency: “(1) the existence of a...