mcgarry criteria competency stand trial
Although classifications based on the ECST-R evidence a high concordance with legal outcome (88.9%), classifications by ECST-R scales are based on construct validity and the use of normative data. The Interdisciplinary Fitness Interview (IFI) was designed to assess both the legal and psychopathological aspects of competency (Golding et al., 1984), ideally involving interviews conducted by a psychologist and a lawyer team. 2324). Indeed, the term itself is misleading because few defendants actually go to trial, as the vast majority of cases are resolved through plea bargaining. WebThe Competence to Stand Trial Assessment Instrument, often called the Competency Assessment Instrument (CAI), was developed in 1973 as a companion instrument to the Competency Screening Test (CST) and sought to standardize as well as quantify the criteria for competence to stand trial. An interesting addition to the Gowensmith et al. (a) Examination by Experts. 
Rather, the majority of cases are resolved through plea bargaining. As part of a special issue of the Journal on evidence-based forensic practice, this article examines three published competency measures: the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool-Criminal Adjudication (MacCAT-CA), the Evaluation of Competency to Stand Trial-Revised (ECST-R), and the Competence Assessment for Standing Trial for Defendants with Mental Retardation (CAST-MR). The Supreme Court, in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc.,9 applied scientific principles to the admissibility of scientific evidence. The Daubert guidelines ask that experts address the error rates associated with their methods. The CAST-MR also has a specific scale for considering the defendant's memory of the offense and subsequent arrest. Grisso39 provides a thorough review of the CAST-MR and the MacCAT-CA. 
If they do not have the capacity in any of these areas, they may be found incompetent to proceed and the judicial proceedings are suspended until they are treated and competency is restored. Theon Jackson, who was deaf and mute and could not read or write, was charged with two robberies and found incompetent due primarily to his inability to communicate and also his intellectual deficits. Readers can independently evaluate the following analyses of competency measures in light of this disclosure. Reliabilities and Error Rates of the Three Competency Measures. The CAST-MR provides the broadest appraisal of factual understanding with inquiries about common legal terms and basic information regarding verdicts and sentencing. Probably because of its original development as a research measure, 16 of the 22 items do not address the defendant's case. The term competence to stand trial is perhaps misleading because only a small percentage of criminal cases actually go to trial. Recent case law is discussed regarding the role of amnesia in determining competency to stand trial. Evidence-based practice cannot be achieved without standardization. However, the cumulative effects of a 3 rating can indicate substantially impaired competency. 3233). WebThe competency screening test was administered to 43 men who had been referred to a state hospital for determination of competency to stand trial. 
The practical effect of this decision was to prevent experts from circumventing Daubert by claiming that their expertise (e.g., clinical practice) was nonscientific. Standards For Determining Competency And For Conducting A Hearing. Competence for execution is an infrequently raised competence issue, and the reader is referred to Zapf (2016) for a review and discussion. WebMcGarry Criteria. Field reliability of competence to stand trial opinions: How often do evaluators agree, and what do judges decide when evaluators disagree? Dusky is a vague standard as it provides little clear direction to forensic examiners asked to provide an assessment of a defendants competence. Once a competency evaluation is ordered, the evaluation itself can take place in a range of settings, including jails, forensic facilities, or if a defendant is released on bail, in an outpatient setting. Additionally, in the case of a particular scientific technique, the court ordinarily should consider the known or potential rate of error. (B) Upon the filing of a Plea of Mental Incompetency to Stand Trial, the judge shall conduct a bench trial to determine the issue of mental competency to stand trial unless the state or the defendant, within twenty days of filing of the plea, demands a WebTHE CST WAS CONSTRUCTED BY MCGARRY AND OTHERS AS AN OBJECTIVE, PRELIMINARY SCREENING INSTRUMENT. An interesting finding was that agreement dropped to 61% in reevaluations of defendants undergoing restoration after being found incompetent. Each of these three sections provides clinicians with specific questions that tap into different areas involved in competency. In one attempt to identify a criterion, Golding, Roesch, and Schreiber (1984) used a panel of experts, referred to as a blue ribbon panel, to serve as an independent criterion. Established practitioners sometimes are slighted by evidence-based researchers, who now feel entitled to criticize and rectify clinical authorities perhaps motivated by an iconoclastic or even patricidal tendency (Ref. For example, if the defendant adequately describes the role of a defense attorney, he or she would receive a score of 2. What about the gross incongruencies criticism of the ECST-R of Melton and his colleagues32? For example, standardized observations of attorney-client interactions would be valuable. For defendants found incompetent, treatment is usually successful in restoring competence and allowing them to return to court and proceed with the resolution of their cases. Fitness to stand trial (equivalent to competency to stand trial) requires that defendants have a basic understanding of the purpose of the trial and the trial procedures. They also noted that most defendants were on medication, but less than a fifth of the reports discussed the impact that might have on a defendants competency. This information may help with the consult-with-counsel prong. The figures reveal that this is not supported, revealing a flaw in the test. As summarized in Table 1, two scales of the CAST-MR appear to meet this guideline, with understanding case events being particularly straightforward. For normal (unimpaired) persons, the capacity to process information is generally limited to the magic number of 7 2 concepts.43 For language, individuals use verbal chunking consisting of 6 to 12 syllables per concept.44 Using the MacCAT-CA as a benchmark with 1.34 syllables per word, the midpoint for unimpaired persons would be: 7 concepts 9 syllables 1.34 syllables per word = 47.01 words. if there is reasonable cause to believe that the defendant may Research generally reports high agreement in studies of the reliability of CST evaluations, with agreement about the ultimate opinion regarding competency in the 90% range (Cox & Zapf, 2004; Poythress & Stock, 1980; Rosenfeld & Ritchie, 1998). Have the courts abdicated their responsibility for determination of competency to stand trial to clinicians? In fact, this approach is embraced by the AAPL Task Force in its summary statement about competency measures: Instead, psychiatrists should interpret results of testing in light of all other data obtained from clinical interviews and collateral sources (Ref. The CAST-MR comprises 50 verbally administered questions that assess basic legal concepts, skills to assist defense, and understanding of case events. For instance, what would be the similarities in MacCAT-CA's aggravated assault between friends and delusionally motivated crimes? It provides an assessment of CST broadly, but also allows the clinician to address specific competencies that might arise in some cases, such as competency to plead and competency to proceed pro se. 
The FIT-R has been shown to have high inter-rater reliability and validity in studies comparing ratings by psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses, and psychology graduate students, and comparison of judgments based on the FIT-R with institutional-based evaluations of competency (Viljoen, Roesch, & Zapf, 2002a; Zapf, Roesch, & Viljoen, 2001), and high agreement with other competency measures such as the MacCAT-CA (Zapf & Roesch, 2001) and correlations with related constructs such as intelligence and psychosis (Viljoen, Roesch, & Zapf, 2002b; Viljoen, Zapf, & Roesch, 2003). This provides an assessment of a defendants capacity to understand and acquire and process new information. As part of this substantiation, reliable and standardized information from competency measures should not be routinely ignored by forensic practitioners. Although it does not assess the quality of the defendant-attorney relationship directly, it can provide valuable information about the defendant's willingness to cooperate. A recent study of defendants found incompetent in the federal court system (Cochrane, Herbel, Reardon, & Lloyd, 2013) found that 79% of 132 involuntarily medicated defendants were successfully restored to competence, with an average treatment period of less than five months. The ECST-R has excellent normative data based on 200 competency referrals and 128 jail detainees. Beyond complex content, we suspect there is some professional arrogance arising from the use of sophisticated research designs and psychometric rigor. There are 280 inmates at the Bexar County Jail that have been designated incompetent to stand trial because of mental health issues, intellectual disabilities, or other problems. The MacCAT-CA has the most problems of competency measures in establishing accurate classifications. Forensic practitioners should supplement the previous analysis with careful reviews from other researchers and scholars. Fundamental justice requires that criminal defendants should be able to Each defendant is asked about the nature of the charges that he or she is facing, how the defendant would assist his or her lawyer, the nature of his or her relationship with the lawyer, and the consequences of a guilty verdict. The defendant is asked a series of questions about Freds situation and how Fred might deal with various aspects of his case. Competence is also a consideration when a defendant chooses to represent him or herself (referred to as proceeding pro se). Individual items for the competency scales were developed and pilot tested. As well, following the Edwards decision, a defendant could be found competent to stand trial but still denied the right to defend him or herself. Similar findings were found in an Alabama study by Zapf, Hubbard, Cooper, Wheeles, and Ronan (2004), who examined reports in forensic facilities and found that while the majority of them covered factual understanding issues, over 90% offered no information about the appreciation or reasoning abilities of the defendants being evaluated for competency. The MacCAT-CA was not originally developed as a measure of competency to stand trial. 
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