§704-403 Physical or mental disease, disorder, or defect excluding fitness to proceed. No person who as a result of a physical or mental disease, disorder, or defect lacks capacity to understand the proceedings against the person or to assist in the person's own defense shall be tried, convicted, or sentenced for the commission of an offense so long as such incapacity endures. [L 1972, c 9, pt of §1; gen ch 1993]

COMMENTARY ON §704-403

The section sets forth the universally accepted position in Anglo-American law that a defendant cannot be proceeded against (with the exception of being charged) unless the defendant has the capacity to understand the proceedings against the defendant and assist in the defendant's own defense. The Code deliberately avoids terms such as "the then present insanity"[1] and focuses on those factors which call for a suspension of the proceedings: (1) lack of capacity to understand the proceedings, or (2) lack of capacity to assist in the defense.

Previous Hawaii law is substantially in accord with this section except that the statutory language used vague, unfocused phrases such as "the then present insanity or mental irresponsibility of the accused," and "the then existing... mental irresponsibility."[2] However, in actual application the trial courts have focused on the capacity of the defendant to understand the proceedings and to assist in the defense.3

Law Journals and Reviews

Fitness to Proceed: Compassion or Prejudice? II HBJ, no. 13, at 135 (1998).

Case Notes

Facts did not support a finding that petitioner was mentally incompetent at relevant times. 79 H. 118 (App.), 899 P.2d 401 (1995).

Cited: 60 H. 17, 586 P.2d 1028 (1978); 134 H. 308, 340 P.3d 440 (2014).

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§704-403 Commentary:

1. See H.R.S. §§711-91 and 711-92.

2. Id.

3. See State v. Wong, 47 Haw. 361, 365, 389 P.2d 439, 442 (1964).