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Public defenders tell Senate panel extending competency-restoration timeline to five years risks due-process and capacity problems
Summary
Opponents including the Ohio Public Defender and Cuyahoga County Public Defender's Office warned the Senate Judiciary Committee that raising the statutory maximum for competency-restoration treatment from one year to five years (and applying it retroactively) could produce constitutional challenges, prolonged involuntary confinement and strain state forensic hospital capacity.
Opponents of Senate Bill 295 told the Senate Judiciary Committee the bill's proposed increase of the competency-restoration timeline from one year to five years for elevated felonies risks due-process problems, retroactivity issues and significant strain on state mental-health facilities.
Zach Miller, legislative officer for the Ohio Public Defender's Office, testified that while the office supports provisions to toll or restart the restoration timeline and to require treatment facilities to notify courts when a defendant refuses treatment, a blanket change from one to five years is “a substantial and concerning expansion.” He…
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