When will a court grant a diminished capacity defense?

a sentence in state prison; and, (4) the defendant did not act in self-defense. Evidence of a defendant's mental health will not support a diminished capacity defense if the crime is a general intent crime, and battery is a general intent crime. (People v. Glover (1967) 257 Cal.App.2d 502, 505; People v. Thurston (1999) 71 Cal.App.4th 1050, 1054.)

The trial court also held the records failed to suggest defendant would have met the standard for legal insanity at the time of the offense. Although the records indicate defendant was diagnosed with a mental illness, "'[a] person may be mentally ill or mentally abnormal and yet not be legally insane.'" (People v. Coddington (2000) 23 Cal.4th 529, 608, overruled on other grounds in Price v. Superior Court (2001) 25 Cal.4th 1046, 1069, fn. 13.)

Finally, the trial court determined the records failed to provide a sufficient basis for ordering a section 1368 competency evaluation. A trial court's duty to suspend criminal proceedings arises only when there is a doubt as to a defendant's competency to stand trial, not when there is merely a doubt as to the existence of a mental disorder or developmental disability that does not implicate a defendant's competency to stand trial. (People v. Romero (2008) 44 Cal.4th 386, 420.) When there is substantial evidence a criminal defendant is incompetent, the court must grant a section 1368 motion. Where there is less than substantial evidence, the trial court still has discretion to order a competency hearing. The trial court's decision is given great deference because it has had the opportunity to observe the defendant during trial. (People v. Kaplan (2007) 149 Cal.App.4th 372, 383.)