§ 1163 Sanity hearing - Criminal trial to be suspended.

If someone's mental competency comes into question during a criminal case, everything stops. The judge cannot move forward with the trial, and cannot hand down a sentence, until a jury decides whether the person is legally sane.

This means the criminal case is put on hold entirely. A jury has to hear evidence and reach a decision about the person's mental state before anything else can happen in the case. The court can't skip this step or make the sanity decision on its own. It has to go to a jury.

Once the jury decides the question of sanity, the case can move forward again, whether that means resuming the trial or moving to sentencing. This rule protects people from being tried or sentenced while their mental competency is still an open question that hasn't been decided by a jury.