Fitness to plead

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In the law of England and Wales, Fitness to Plead is covered in the Criminal Procedure (Insanity and Unfitness to Plead) Act 1991. It covers occasions when the defendant's condition may be so serious that it will justify a hearing on the issue of fitness to plead.^[1] Its American equivalent is Competence to stand.

There is a dearth of research into fitness to plead in the UK, with no prospective studies and no studies involving the comparison of fit and unfit subjects. In particular, there have been no investigations into the meaning of ‘unfit to plead’ in terms of psychiatric symptomatology, or as to the relative importance of each legal fitness criterion in psychiatrists' conclusions as to fitness. ^[2]

Other jurisdictions address issues of a defendant's ability to meaningfully participate in the proceedings in a variety of ways. For example, in New York, if a defendant's capacity to understand the proceedings and participate in his or her defense is in question, the court will order that the defendant be examined by two independent medical professionals and conduct a hearing to consider the medical evidence, a procedure known as a "730 examination" as it is governed by Section 730 of the New York Criminal Procedure Law. Analogous procedures exist in other jurisdictions.