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J Am Acad Psychiatry Law 37:3:380-385 (2009)
Copyright © 2009 by the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law.
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ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY

Indiana v. Davis: Revisiting Due Process Rights of Permanently Incompetent Defendants

Douglas R. Morris, MD and George F. Parker, MD

Dr. Morris is Volunteer Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, and Dr. Parker is Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Indiana University School of Medicine, Bloomington, IN. The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect official policies or positions of the Indiana University School of Medicine or the Indiana Division of Mental Health and Addictions. Address correspondence to: Douglas R. Morris, MD, Logansport State Hospital, IRTC 833, 1098 South State Road 25, Logansport, IN 46947. E-mail: drdmo{at}hotmail.com

With its landmark Jackson v. Indiana (406 U.S. 715 (1972)) decision, the United States Supreme Court ruled that states may not indefinitely confine criminal defendants solely on the basis of incompetence to stand trial. While this decision led to widespread state statutory and procedural changes, the Jackson court left unresolved whether states could indefinitely maintain criminal charges against incompetent defendants. Nearly four decades after the Jackson decision, the Indiana Supreme Court finally revisited this question in Indiana v. Davis (898 N.E.2d. 281 (Ind. 2008)), unanimously ruling that holding criminal charges over the head of a permanently incompetent defendant, when her pretrial confinement extended beyond the maximum period of any sentence the trial court could impose, violated the basic notions of fundamental fairness embodied in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In this analysis of Indiana v. Davis, the facts of the case and the court's rationale for its decision are discussed. This unique ruling is considered in light of the questions resolved and still unanswered since Jackson v. Indiana.






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