I. Orders of Commitment

JurisdictionNew York

I. Orders of Commitment

Orders of commitment under CPL § 730.50 apply to persons indicted for a felony who are found to be incapacitated. The court must issue an order of commitment, which commits the defendant to the care and custody of the commissioner for one year. At the end of that year, if the defendant’s doctors believe he or she is still incapacitated, they must file for an order of retention for an additional year. Any subsequent retention orders can be for up to two years, as long as the aggregate of orders does “not exceed two-thirds of the authorized maximum term of imprisonment for the highest class felony charged in the indictment.”40 At the end of this aggregate of retention periods, the court must dismiss the outstanding indictment.41

Soon after the New York State Legislature enacted CPL art. 730, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Jackson v. Indiana.42 The Court found that Indiana’s commitment law, which allowed for indefinite commitment of an individual found incompetent to stand trial, violated due process. The state could hold a defendant for a reasonable period of time necessary to determine whether there is a substantial probability that he or she would be restored to competency in the foreseeable future. If there is no likelihood of restoration to competency, then the state must commence civil commitment proceedings or release the defendant. The Court’s oft-quoted statement is that “due process requires that the nature and duration of commitment bear some reasonable relation to the purpose for which the individual is committed.”43 The Court also found that the defendant’s equal protection rights had been...

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