Commonwealth v. Del Verde

In this case, we are asked to extend the doctrine of substituted judgment to permit an incompetent criminal defendant to enter a plea of guilty to a charge of manslaughter. Such permission, we are told, would uphold the integrity of the incompetent individual, allow him to exercise rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States and the laws of the Commonwealth, and relieve him of a fate of permanent and uncertain incarceration. We conclude that the substituted judgment procedure is inappropriate and unnecessary to protect the rights of the defendant.

We summarize the statement of…