Neil W. Gowensmith, Ph.D, Daniel Murrie, Ph.D, and Sharon Kelley, J.D., Ph.D., present a live virtual professional training program on Criminal Competencies: Evaluating Competence to Stand Trial and Evaluating Miranda Rights Comprehension.
This live virtual training takes place over two full-day sessions from 7:00 am - 3:00 pm PST each day.
This is a multi-day training event. Participants must attend all scheduled sessions in full to be eligible to receive continuing education (CE) credit. Partial credit will not be awarded.
This badge-earning program can be shared digitally on platforms like LinkedIn or your resume and counts towards various certificates. Enroll to earn credit and share your new digital credentials with prospective employers and colleagues. This program counts as a foundational program in the Criminal Forensic Assessment Certificate.
This program is suitable for a variety of forensic mental health professionals across settings and career stages, including graduate students, early career professionals, or more advanced professionals who have less background or experience.
Evaluations of Competence to Stand Trial (CST, or adjudicative competence) are the most common form of forensic evaluation, and the demand for these evaluations continues to increase greatly. Yet research consistently reveal weaknesses in the wide-scale practice of CST evaluation. This program begins with the basics, particularly the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dusky criteria, and the foundational understanding of competence as functional and contextual. We guide evaluators in thorough CST assessment and report writing. We focus on the areas evaluators tend to under-address—particularly assessing and describing rational understanding—as well as other common errors in assessment and report writing. We provide practice exercises, guides, templates, and checklists to help evaluators cover necessary content, and craft well-organized reports.
The second half of the program will begin with coverage of the legal foundations of the Miranda rights, including landmark Supreme Court cases that define the rights, the criteria for waivers of the rights, and how key terms (e.g., ‘custody’ and ‘interrogation’) are defined in the law. Next, the program will cover how forensic mental health professionals have translated legal standard into psychological criteria suitable for psychological assessment, and the results of multiple decades of research into the individual and situational factors related to comprehension of Miranda rights. The second half of the program will address best practices for evaluations of Miranda rights comprehension, including how best practices of forensic mental health assessment apply to these evaluations, and practices that are unique to these evaluations—including overviews of specialized forensic assessment instruments: the Miranda Rights Comprehension Instruments (Goldstein, Zelle, & Grisso, 2014) and the Standardized Assessment of Miranda Abilities (Rogers, Sewell, Drogin, & Fiduccia, 2013). The program will conclude with a review of best practices related to report writing, testimony, and consultation with attorneys.
This program is suitable for a variety of forensic mental health professionals across settings and career stages, including graduate students, early career professionals, or more advanced professionals who have less background or experience.
Upon completion of this training, participants will be able to:
Neil Gowensmith is a core faculty member at the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Professional Psychology, teaching exclusively in the Masters of Forensic Psychology program. In 2014, he created and became the director of the department’s forensic mental health institute, Denver FIRST (The University of Denver’s Forensic Institute for Research, Service, and Training), which operates a postdoctoral fellowship, an outpatient competency restoration program, and a robust forensic evaluation service. Dr. Gowensmith has worked in prisons, jails, courts, community mental health centers, and mental health hospitals throughout his career. Prior to his current academic appointment, he was the Chief of Forensic Services for the State of Hawai’i, in which he oversaw all court-ordered forensic evaluations, outpatient competence restoration, jail diversion, mental health court, and re-entry services. As part of that work, he ultimately steered the Department out of federal oversight. He continues to serve as a national expert in forensic mental health, with consultation, research, and practice focusing specifically on competency restoration (inpatient, outpatient, and jail-based), standards for forensic evaluators, quality improvement for forensic evaluations, and public forensic mental health systems. His consulting practice consists of various contracts and appointments in several states across the country.
Daniel Murrie, PhD serves as Director of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy (ILPPP) and a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.
Dr. Murrie directs the University of Virginia (UVA) Forensic Clinic, the UVA Postdoctoral Fellowship in Forensic Psychology, and Virginia’s state-sponsored training program for psychologists and psychiatrists learning to perform court-ordered forensic evaluations. As a forensic psychologist, Dr. Murrie performs a variety of forensic evaluations around the country, with an emphasis on evaluations of trial competence and evaluations in capital cases. As a consultant, he works with state administrators and advocacy groups—and serves as a federally-appointed monitor—to help states improve their forensic service systems.
As a scholar, Dr. Murrie has co-authored roughly 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications, books, and book chapters, all addressing forms of forensic mental health evaluation. Much of his research program addresses quality, reliability, and bias in forensic psychological evaluations.
Dr. Murrie was recently President of the American Psychological Association’s Division 41, the American Psychology-Law Society (APLS). He was the 2025 winner of the American Academy of Forensic Psychology’s award for Distinguished Contributions to Forensic Psychology.
Sharon Kelley, JD, PhD, is a forensic psychologist at the University of Virginia’s Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy (ILPPP), and the UVA Forensic Clinic within it. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and an Instructor in the UVA School of Law. Dr. Kelley came to ILPPP after graduating from the law-psychology program at Villanova University School of Law and Drexel University and completing a forensic psychology fellowship at UVA and Western State Hospital.
As a forensic psychologist, she performs a range of evaluations for the criminal legal system (e.g., Miranda rights comprehension, competence to stand trial, criminal responsibility, pre-sentencing, re-sentencing of juvenile matters, capital sentencing, violence risk), public safety departments (e.g., pre-employment psychological evaluations, fitness for duty evaluations), and other clients (e.g., universities). As a researcher, Dr. Kelley has co-authored many peer-reviewed scientific publications on topics including forensic mental health assessment, legal competencies of individuals in the criminal legal system, police interactions with persons with mental illness and feedback in forensic mental health assessment.
Key topics covered in this training include:
Understanding the national crisis in competence to stand trial services
Legal Foundations: Dusky and landmark Supreme Court cases
Translating of legal standards into psychological concepts: Competence is functional and contextual
Assessing the Dusky criteria, with a focus on the rational understanding and assisting counsel
Best practices for evaluations of adjudicative competence
Distinguishing relevant and irrelevant information in interview and report writing
Best practices for report writing, testimony, and consultations with attorneys
Legal Foundations: landmark Supreme Court cases defining the rights and criteria for waivers
Translation of legal standards into psychological criteria
Results of empirical research on Miranda rights comprehension, including research with specific populations (e.g., youth, individuals with intellectual disabilities) and Best practices for evaluations of Miranda rights comprehension, including an overview of two specialized forensic assessment instruments: the Miranda Rights Comprehension Instruments (Goldstein, Zelle, & Grisso, 2014) and the Standardized Assessment of Miranda Abilities (Rogers, Sewell, Drogin, & Fiduccia, 2013). Best practices for report writing, testimony, and consultations with attorneys .
Palo Alto University, Continuing & Professional Studies (CONCEPT) is approved by, recognized by, or maintains sponsorship provider status with the following boards and agencies. We maintain responsibility for all content in our CE/CPD programs. For more information, visit here.
American Psychological Association (APA): Approved sponsor of continuing education for psychologists.
Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB): Approved continuing education provider (ACE program, Provider #1480), 11/22/2023–11/22/2026.
Canadian Psychological Association (CPA): Approved to sponsor continuing education for psychologists.
National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC): Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEP No. 7190).
Palo Alto University, Continuing and Professional Studies (CONCEPT) is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Palo Alto University, Continuing and Professional Studies (CONCEPT), is approved by the Canadian Psychological Association to offer continuing education for psychologists. Palo Alto University, Continuing and Professional Studies (CONCEPT) has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7190. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Palo Alto University, #1480, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. Palo Alto University maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period 11/22/23-11/22/26. Social workers completing this course receive (clinical or social work ethics) continuing education credits. Continuing and Professional Studies, Palo Alto University, is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0103. Palo Alto University, Continuing and Professional Studies (CONCEPT) is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Palo Alto University, Continuing & Professional Studies (CONCEPT), is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0356. Palo Alto University, Continuing and Professional Studies, is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0073.
