Evaluations of competency to stand trial (CST) in defendants with mental retardation or borderline intellectual functioning can be difficult when deficits are masked by the type of adaptations seen in many with developmental disabilities. Accordingly, many evaluators have used validated test instruments, such as the CAST*MR (Competence Assessment to Stand Trial for Defendants with Mental Retard...

Criminal defendants adjudicated incompetent to stand trial are typically hospitalized for competence restoration in state institutions. Prolonged restoration hospitalizations involve civil rights concerns and increasing financial costs, and there remains interest in determining which individuals are likely to be successfully restored. We retrospectively reviewed hospital records of 455 male def...

In this issue of The Journal, Dr. Peter Ash offers the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law some ideas on developmentally informed assessment of criminal culpability during adolescence. After highlighting issues that complicate the definition and assessment of criminal culpability, Ash lists 10 constructs that he believes should be carefully considered by forensic clinicians in developing...

Courts in the United States do not recognize a formal “cultural defense” for criminal acts committed by defendants belonging to other cultures. This means that courts ostensibly do not take foreign cultural practices, customs, or beliefs into account in evaluating the guilt of individuals who break U.S. laws. Nonetheless, courts have repeatedly permitted cultural evidence to be introduced as an...

One of the longstanding complaints against the death penalty is that it “distort[s] the course of the criminal law.” Capital prosecutions are expensive and complicated; they draw sensational attention from the press; they are litigated—before, during, and after trial—at greater length and depth than other felonies; they generate more intense emotions, for and against; they last longer and live ...

Competence to stand trial is necessary for a defendant in criminal adjudication. Recent estimates indicate that between 50,000 and 60,000 defendants in the United States raise the question of competence each year, with approximately 20 percent found incompetent to stand trial (IST). Most of these defendants are committed to an inpatient facility for competence restoration. Although psychopharma...

Restoration to competence (RTC) of mentally disordered defendants has become increasingly important for state hospitals. In Indiana, most RTC admissions are sent to one primarily forensic state hospital, but many are admitted to other state hospitals. A state database of defendants admitted for RTC between 1988 and 2005 was analyzed for trends in annual admissions, length of stay (LOS), and suc...

During the penalty phase of capital trials, defendants may introduce mitigating evidence that argues for a punishment "less than death." In the past few years, a novel form of mitigating evidence-brain scans made possible by technological advances in neuroscience-has been proffered by defendants to support claims that brain abnormalities reduce their culpability. This exploratory study assessed...

A preliminary investigation of the impact of pretrial evaluations of trial competence and legal insanity, and the variables that mediate case outcomes is reported. Twenty-four percent of defendants evaluated as incompetent to stand trial were found competent by the court or were tried without the question of competence being adjudicated. Charges were dropped in more than half of the cases in wh...