Supreme Judicial Court hears challenge to detaining defendants to secure inpatient competency evaluations

Summary

In a single‑justice oral argument, counsel for SW urged the Supreme Judicial Court to rule that courts lack authority to detain defendants without bail solely to obtain inpatient competency evaluations and to adopt expedited appellate procedures; the Commonwealth urged local forums may provide faster review.

The Supreme Judicial Court heard argument over whether courts may detain criminal defendants without bail for the sole purpose of securing inpatient competency evaluations, and related questions about when a court may order a Section 15b hospital evaluation and which forum should hear appeals.

Attorney Mikaela Martin Stroud, representing the defendant identified in the record as SW, told the court that the Commonwealth does not point to statutory authority allowing courts to hold people without bail merely to facilitate competency evaluations and urged the court to exercise its superintendent authority to resolve what she called a recurring practice across the Commonwealth. "We are asking the court to exercise its discretion to address this issue under its superintendent's authority," Stroud said.

Stroud framed three issues for the court: (1) whether defendants awaiting competency evaluations may be detained without bail, (2) whether a Section 15b inpatient evaluation may be ordered after a clinician's in‑court Section 15a opinion is recorded, and (3)…

Supreme Judicial Court hears challenge to detaining defendants to secure inpatient competency evaluations

Summary

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