Opinion ID: 772210
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Length of Mental Competency Examination

Text: 41 Defendant also contends that the Speedy Trial Act only allows a maximum of fifty-five days for purposes of completing mental competency examinations. Defendant reaches this conclusion by relying upon two statutory provisions. First, Defendant cites § 3161(h)(1)(H) for the proposition that a total of ten days can count as excludable time for transportation to and from the place of examination and that any other delay is presumed to be unreasonable. 6 Second, Defendant cites 18 U.S.C. §4247(b) for the proposition that there is a forty-five-day limit for a mental evaluation unless an extension is requested. 7 Defendant asserts that an extension was not requested in the case at hand. 42 We note that Defendant fails to point this Court to any evidence in the record demonstrating the dates upon which he was transported to and from the facility where the examination was conducted or the actual dates that Defendant was admitted or released from the facility. We also conclude that Defendant's contention is without merit. We have not addressed this specific issue; however, every other circuit that has addressed the issue has concluded that time associated with mental competency examinations are excluded from the Speedy Trial clock. See United States v. Noone, 913 F.2d 20, 25-27 (1st Cir. 1990) (holding that exclusion of time begins when motion to determine competency is filed and ends when competency hearing is concluded); United States v. Vasquez, 918 F.2d 329, 333 (2d Cir. 1990) (holding that ten month delay between motion for psychiatric exam and receipt of competency report by court is excludable); United States v. Neal,27 F.3d 1035, 1042 (5th Cir. 1994) (excluding time period between the date motion for competency examination was filed and the date defendant was found competent to stand trial); United States v. Miranda, 986 F.2d 1283, 1284 (9th Cir. 1993) (excluding 106-day period during which the competency evaluation was being prepared). 43 Further, Defendant's contention that a mental competency examination may only last forty-five days pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 4247(b) must also fail. Every court that has decided this issue has concluded that § 4247(b) does not limit the time period for a competency examination with respect to calculations under the Speedy Trial Act. For instance, in United States v. Fuller, 86 F.3d 105 (7th Cir. 1996), the Seventh Circuit specifically addressed whether § 4247(b) limited the exclusion of time under the Speedy Trial Act. In concluding that it did not, the court stated [t]o put the two statutes together, borrowing the 30 and 45 day limits from the commitment statute for interpolation into the limitless delay provision of the Speedy Trial Act, would be an audacious bit of judicial creativity--and to no purpose that we can see. Id. at 106. 44 In Miranda, the defendant argued that section 4247(b) limited the time that can be excluded for a competency examination under section 3161(h)(1)(A) of the Speedy Trial Act to forty-five days. 986 F.2d at 1284-85. In rejecting the defendant's argument, the Ninth Circuit stated: The plain language of the Speedy Trial Act gives no indication that an exclusion for a competency evaluation must be so limited. To the contrary, section 3161(h)(1)(A) expressly excludes any period of delay resulting from other proceedings concerning the defendant, including but not limited to . . . delay resulting from any proceeding, including any examinations, to determine the mental competency or physical capacity of the defendant. Although it was certainly capable of doing so, Congress gave no indication that 18 U.S.C. § 4247(b) modifies section 3161(h)(1)(A). Moreover, there is no compelling reason that the two statutes be linked. We refuse, therefore, to find a limitation where Congress did not expressly create one. 45 Id. at 1285 (citations omitted). The reasoning of the Seventh and Ninth Circuits is persuasive. We therefore conclude that § 4247(b) does not limit the time excludable under the Speedy Trial Act for mental competency examinations.