Opinion ID: 365815
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Hearing on Competence

Text: 37 Cavanaugh argues that the trial court erred by failing to initiate a hearing on his competence to stand trial. 38 If the evidence is sufficient to raise a genuine doubt in the mind of a reasonable trial judge concerning the defendant's competence, due process requires the trial judge to hold a competency hearing on his own motion. Bassett v. McCarthy, 549 F.2d 616, 619 (9th Cir.), Cert. denied, 434 U.S. 849, 98 S.Ct. 158, 54 L.Ed.2d 117 (1977); See 18 U.S.C. § 4244; Pate v. Robinson, 383 U.S. 375, 385, 86 S.Ct. 836, 15 L.Ed.2d 815 (1966). The constitutional standard of competence is whether a defendant  'has sufficient present ability to consult with his lawyer with a reasonable degree of rational understanding and whether he has a rational as well as factual understanding of the proceedings against him' . Dusky v. United States, 362 U.S. 402, 80 S.Ct. 788, 4 L.Ed.2d 824 (1960); Bassett, 549 F.2d at 618. Bare assertions by defendant's counsel that defendant is not competent to stand trial generally are not sufficient to raise the requisite doubt. See De Kaplany v. Enomoto, 540 F.2d 975, 982-83 & n.8 (9th Cir. 1976) (en banc), Cert. denied, 429 U.S. 1075, 97 S.Ct. 815, 50 L.Ed.2d 793 (1977); See also United States v. Ives, 574 F.2d 1002, 1004 (9th Cir. 1978). 39 In this case, the record reveals that Cavanaugh was alert, rational and responsive throughout the trial. Cavanaugh testified, at a hearing on a motion to suppress, that during the month immediately preceding trial, and at Cavanaugh's request, jail officials had given Cavanaugh sedatives that made him drowsy. However, there is no evidence that he took any drugs at the time of his trial. The only other evidence of incompetence consisted of the unsupported assertions of Cavanaugh and his counsel that the discomfort of living in a jail cell had impaired Cavanaugh's mental ability to testify and to respond to cross-examination. 40 The evidence was insufficient to raise a genuine doubt about Cavanaugh's ability to communicate rationally with his lawyer and to understand the proceedings against him. The trial court was not required to hold a competency hearing on its own motion.