House Judiciary Committee weighs changes to S193 on competency restoration and victim notification

The House Judiciary Committee on April 22 continued consideration of S193, a bill that would set procedures for forensic-facility evaluations and competency restoration.

Jared Bianke, who joined the meeting by Zoom, told lawmakers the draft "looks to bring the victim's voice into the fold" and said the changes that do so were "strong and appropriate." He and other witnesses urged the committee to add language modeled on federal law to define when a defendant is "restorable to competency." Bianke said the recommended definition would describe a "substantial probability that in the foreseeable future the person will attain the capacity to permit the proceedings to go forward." (Bianke indicated he would send suggested statutory language drawn from the federal statute.)

Bianke and monitoring officials recommended that the bill require courts, when a defendant is found competent, to order the defendant returned to whatever custodial status the person held before admission to the forensic facility (for example, a hold without bail) rather than…