Q2. Why does the trial judge have a duty to reconsider the issue?
Because competency is a fluctuating state, and a defendant's condition may change during the course of a trial, the trial judge has a duty to reconsider the issue any time there is a reasonable doubt about the defendant's competency.
Q3. What is the effect of substituting a system of trial continuances for the existing formal?
200Substituting a system of trial continuances for the existing formal incompetency process also would have the salutary effect of avoiding unnecessary incompetency labeling.
Q4. Why would a rule eliminate the cost and many burdens of the incompetency process?
Because a high percentage of incompetency cases arise out of misdemeanor charges, such a rule would eliminate much of the cost and many of the burdens of the incompetency process.
Q5. What would Professor Bonnie do if the defendant is incompetent?
68 For decisionmaking about how to plead, if the defendant is decisionally incompetent, Professor Bonnie would allow the attorney to plead the defendant not guilty and obtain a trial, but would not permit a plea of guilty.
Q6. Why is the right to trial not waived?
Because the jury trial right serves important societal as well as individual interests, it may not be waived unilaterally by the defendant.
Q7. What would Professor Bonnie allow the attorney to do?
For decisionmaking about jury trial, if the defendant is decisionally incompetent, Professor Bonnie would allow the attorney to make the decision.
Q8. What does the law require of a defendant to make decisions about the plea?
The law, however, commits a small number of these decisions to the defendant-decisions regarding the plea, whether to waive the right to trial by jury, and whether the defendant will be present and will testify.
Q9. How can a court treat a decision to honor a defendant's desire to stand?
As mentioned, courts can treat their decisions to honor a defendant's desire to stand trial as provisional, and reconsider them as the trial unfolds if the defendant's conduct or demeanor suggests incompetency, or if defense counsel decides to raise the issue.
Q10. What is the argument that the defendant should be allowed to waive the doctrine?
I argued, finally, that even if the court deems the defendant incompetent to waive the supposed benefits of the incompetency doctrine, it should permit defense counsel to waive the doctrine on behalf of the defendant on the grounds that defense lawyers, as fiduciaries, can substitute their judgment for that of an incompetent client.
Q11. What is the difference between allowing a measure of surrogate decisionmaking by counsel and?
Both allowing a measure of surrogate decisionmaking by counsel and instituting a presumption in favor of competency in cases of assent provide greater deference to the autonomy both of the individual and of the attorney-client relationship consistent with the protective objectives and societal concerns underlying the incompetency doctrine.
Q12. In addition, counsel will be appointed for indigent defendants in all felony and serious?
In addition, counsel will be appointed for indigent defendants in all felony and in serious misdemeanor cases in which the defendant receives a term of imprisonment.