9th Judicial District fast in competency hearings

CLOVIS — When it comes to finding a defendant competent or not competent to stand trial, the 9th Judicial District is one of the state’s fastest.

The New Mexico Sentencing Commission released its findings last Friday following a study of all 13 judicial districts in the state, plus the metro district in light of court rule changes in 2018 to expedite the competency hearing process.

A total of 1,418 individuals took 1,528 competency evaluations in the 2018-19 fiscal year. For those who had multiple evaluations during the time period, only their first evaluation was included in the data.

Findings included the following: the 9th Judicial District, which includes Curry and Roosevelt counties, had a median of 42.5 days between an order for competency evaluation to a competency report.

Not counting the Metro district (28 days), the 9th District is fourth behind the 10th (37), 12th (40) and seventh (41.5). The highest median number 81 days in the 8th District.