Competency to Stand Trial
In the United States criminal justice system, a competency judgment is an assessment of the quality of a suspect quality to understand and rationally participate in a court process. Competency was originally launched by the Supreme Court of the United States as the evaluation of a suspect quality to proceed to trial.
In a later finding, the Court held that that an prisoner facing the death penalty must be evaluated as competent to be performed, intending that he must be capable of agreement why he has received the death punishment and the effect that the punishment will have.