Ark. Code Ann. § 5-2-302

Lack of fitness to proceed generally

Applied in 23 court decisions — leading case Rankin v. State (1997)

Most recently applied in Karl D. Roberts v. State of Arkansas (January 2020)

Acts 1975, No. 280, § 603; A.S.A. 1947, § 41-603; Acts 2001, No. 1554, § 2.

How often courts cite this section

citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1) No person who lacks the capacity to understand a proceeding against him or her or to assist effectively in his or her own defense as a result of mental disease or defect shall be tried, convicted, or sentenced for the commission of an offense so long as the incapacity endures.

(2) A court shall not enter a judgment of acquittal on the ground of mental disease or defect against a defendant who lacks the capacity to understand a proceeding against him or her or to assist effectively in his or her own defense as a result of mental disease or defect.

Current official text: Arkansas General Assembly. Digitized from the UniCourt Code Improvement Commission public-domain capture. Reproduced from public-domain Arkansas statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.