Competence to be sentenced

• Published in: Current opinion in psychiatry Vol. 18; no. 5; p. 547
• Main Authors: Gómez, Juan José Carrasco, Arboleda-Flórez, Julio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.09.2005
• ISSN: 0951-7367
• DOI: 10.1097/01.yco.0000179495.00441.db

Competence to be sentenced, or lack thereof, is not frequently claimed in legal proceedings. This paper reviews the concept and possible forensic psychiatric applications. This topic has achieved prominence because of recent rulings imposed by the US Supreme Court that prohibit execution of mentally impaired and under-age individuals. The most recent contributions focus on standards for evaluating competence to be sentenced and on analyzing the need for involuntary treatment of those who for psychiatric reasons have lost the capacity to stand trial. Competence to be sentenced may be defined as a component of a general capacity to undergo legal proceedings, beyond just fitness to stand trial. It applies specifically to the time between the moment the process ends and the moment a sentence is rendered. This paper reviews general capacity to participate in legal proceedings as a concept that allows a person to intervene fully in his or her defence in a trial that is just and fair, and the different moments at which mental capacity to proceed may be limited or absent. There are no specific guidelines for evaluating competence to be sentenced, so instead we review the basic criteria for general capacity to participate in legal proceedings, including the capacity to mount a defence, to be sentenced and to serve a sentence. Because forensic evaluations are needed for assessment of capacity, the paper provides guidelines on how to organize the assessment and the report.