Sims v. State

The majority adopts the standard of appellate review set forth in Brown v. State, 250 Ga. 66, 71-72 (2) (c) (295 SE2d 727) (1982), which. is applicable to a jury’s finding of sanity in a criminal case, rather than to a finding of competency to stand trial. It does so, based in part, on a Texas court’s opinion that a proceeding to determine competency to stand trial is “quasi-criminal.” To the contrary, however, it is well settled in Georgia that “[a] competency trial ‘ “is in the nature of a civil proceeding and the defendant has the burden to prove incompetency by a preponderance of the…