Competency to be Resentenced and the Rockefeller Drug Law Reform Act: How Does It Affect the Mentally Ill?

Many of the mentally ill prisoners in this country have been convicted of drug crimes. New York State's Rockefeller Drug Laws from the 1970s established harsh sentences for drug crimes to quell a perceived epidemic. These laws were reformed in 2004 to allow the option of resentencing, with the possibility of lighter sentences. However, there is no formal mechanism in New York for a postconviction hearing for competency to be resentenced, thus affecting the severely mentally ill who were sentenced under the old Rockefeller laws. The purpose of this article is to highlight the psychiatric and legal difficulties that can arise without an option for a resentencing competency hearing and to argue that despite the low number of inmates to whom this would apply, there is an important duty to ensure due process to the mentally ill.