NATIONAL LEGAL AND POLICY FRAMEWORK CONCERNING DEFENDANTS AND PERSONS DEPRIVED
OF LIBERTY WITH INTELLECTUAL AND/OR PSYCHOSOCIAL DISABILITIES IN LAW AND PRACTICE
43
The mental health diagnoses that are grounds for
declaring a person to be not criminally responsible or of
limited criminal capacity are only a small proportion of
the possible mental health diagnoses that are of criminal
procedural significance. Therefore, criminal procedural
law theory defines the term criminal procedural incapacity
or diminished capacity (fitness to stand trial) to include
not only those diagnoses which render a person not
criminally responsible, but also those which do not result
in a state of incompetence or diminished capacity, but
which impede the ability of persons to exercise their
procedural rights and legitimate interests.46
A person can only be declared incapacitated in a
particular area by court in accordance with civil
procedure, and this does not affect the person's lack of
criminal responsibility, and vice versa, a person declared
not criminally responsible does not automatically become
incapacitated (not fit to stand trial).47
In the criminal case No. 2K-569/200531, the Supreme
Court of Lithuania clarified that mental health conditions
are important both in the criminal legal sense, in
resolving the problems of criminal legal capacity, and
in the procedural legal sense, considering the different
procedures of investigation and examination of criminal
cases. In cases of dangerous acts committed by persons
who were found to be not criminally responsible, the
process of imposing compulsory medical measures
Ivanovas A. Įtariamojo, kaltinamojo su psichikos sutrikimais teisių ir
teisėtų interesų užtikrinimas. Magistro baigiamasis darbas. Vilnius, 2006.
47 Kaunas Regional Court ruling of 22 September 2016 in criminal case No.
ATP-785-478/2016.
46
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents