The U.S. Supreme Court has not ruled whether states can medicate a person to restore competency, Nelson added. In Texas, Georgia and Massachusetts, she said, lawmakers have decided to commute the sentences of those found incompetent to life in prison rather than carry out executions, she said.

Gladwell said his bill was not intended to force medication upon inmates so that they could be found competent and then executed.

Sen. James Evans, R-Rose Park, questioned whether some inmates might feign mental illness in order to avoid execution if they thought the state would commute their sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Nelson said it was possible, but as defense attorney Mark Moffat added, unlikely. Those who fall under the bill would suffer from illness too extreme to be faked.

Moffat, a legislative liaison for a defense attorney's association, joined Nelson in asking for delay and study. No defense attorneys were included in the drafting process and the association has concerns about a proposed law in which the definition of mental illness is more narrow than what has been previously reviewed by the courts.

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E-mail: jdobner@desnews.com