Opinion ID: 1811226
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Nullification

Text: Significantly, Nomey and the present case differ in some factual respects but also raise significantly similar legal issues. In Nomey, the defense explicitly petitioned to have a sanity commission appointed under the authority of La.Code Crim. Proc. art. 643, and the trial court granted the motion, appointing the requisite two doctors to examine the defendant. As we noted in Nomey, since the trial court ordered the examination, it must have found reasonable grounds upon which defendant's mental capacity to proceed was doubted. However, in the instant case, the trial court did not appoint a sanity commission but rather ordered an Article 643 preliminary inquiry before reaching the reasonable grounds issue. A trial court's preliminary inquiry of this nature does not constitute the unilateral conducting of a sanity hearing for the purposes of La.Code Crim. Proc. art. 646. State v. Martin, 00-0489 (La.9/22/00), 769 So.2d 1168, 1169-70 ( per curiam ). Even though the present case does not present a situation where a sanity commission was either explicitly requested or deemed necessary by the trial court, Nomey applies if a meaningful retrospective determination of defendant's capacity cannot be made from the record. The district court on the instant motion for post conviction relief found insufficient evidence to allow a retroactive competency hearing. We agree with the district court's determination that the facts of the instant case do not allow a retroactive competency hearing. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the district court.