Skip to main content

Pen. Code, § 1368 · Chapter 6. Inquiry into the Competence of the Defendant Before Trial or After Conviction

Pen. Code, § 1368

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)

(a) If, during the pendency of an action and prior to judgment, or during revocation proceedings for a violation of probation, mandatory supervision, postrelease community supervision, or parole, a doubt arises in the mind of the judge as to the mental competence of the defendant, the judge shall state that doubt in the record and inquire of the attorney for the defendant whether, in the opinion of the attorney, the defendant is mentally competent. If the defendant is not represented by counsel, the court shall appoint counsel. At the request of the defendant or defendant’s counsel or upon its own motion, the court shall recess the proceedings for as long as may be reasonably necessary to permit counsel to confer with the defendant and to form an opinion as to the mental competence of the defendant at that point in time.

(b) If counsel informs the court that they believe the defendant is or may be mentally incompetent, the court shall order that the question of the defendant’s mental competence is to be determined pursuant to Sections 1368.1 and 1369. If counsel informs the court that they believe the defendant is mentally competent, the court may nevertheless order a determination by the court of the defendant’s mental competence.

(c) Except as provided in Section 1368.1, when an inquiry into the present mental competence of the defendant has been commenced by the court all proceedings in the criminal prosecution shall be suspended until the question of the present mental competence of the defendant has been determined.

If a jury has been impaneled and sworn to try the defendant, the jury shall be discharged only if it appears to the court that undue hardship to the jurors would result if the jury is retained on call.

If the defendant is declared mentally incompetent, the jury shall be discharged.

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Amended by Stats. 2024, Ch. 646, Sec. 2. (SB 1323) Effective January 1, 2025.

Source of truth

Edition
As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Official file
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN&sectionNum=1368.
Text hash
sha256 60c77e0faa19da4fe3f711e525c9b7ec88d1fbeba8cdea5cb0a2bf4df29ca3a0
Composed by
compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section

BenchPath cards that rely on this text

This section cites

Provisions in this library that the text above cites, as it prints each citation. A range cited as “ss. 61.13-61.16” links its first and last provisions.

Cited by 9 provisions

Provisions in this library whose text cites Pen. Code, § 1368. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.

Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.