Kentucky senators file a bill to create an involuntary-commitment track for violent defendants found incompetent and unlikely to be restored
The bill, titled as an act relating to competency to stand trial and sponsored by Senators M. McGarvey, J. Adams and D. Harper Angel, would amend the state's competency statute so that when a court finds a defendant incompetent with no substantial probability of attaining competency, the prosecutor must petition to start an involuntary commitment proceeding if the defendant is charged with, or has a past conviction for, a listed serious offense such as a capital offense or a Class A felony. Other defendants would go through the existing civil hospitalization chapters.
The measure would create a new chapter of the Kentucky Revised Statutes for this commitment track, with definitions, a guardian ad litem, hearing procedures and commitment criteria, a schedule of periodic review hearings and a requirement that the health cabinet write regulations. Commitment would be to a forensic psychiatric facility unless a less restrictive alternative is appropriate.
According to the Legislative Research Commission's record, the bill was introduced Feb. 20, 2020 and sent to the Senate Health & Welfare Committee on Feb. 24; the record, last updated Oct. 27, 2020, shows no later action. The proposal addresses the gap in Kentucky law for defendants who cannot be restored and cannot be tried.
Source: 20RS SB 188 — Kentucky General Assembly (Legislative Research Commission), by Kentucky Legislative Research Commission
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