People v. Ary

*513Opinion

KENNARD, Acting C. J.

A state that puts a mentally incompetent criminal defendant on trial violates the due process clause of the federal Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment. This constitutional provision also requires that, whenever the evidence raises a reasonable doubt about a defendant’s mental competence, a hearing be held in the trial court to assess the defendant’s mental state. Here, on defendant’s appeal from a murder conviction, the Court of Appeal held in its first opinion in these proceedings that the trial court had erred in failing to evaluate evidence of defendant’s…