DAVID, J.
In June 2007, the State arrested Curtis and charged him with residential entry, battery, and criminal mischief. The State alleged that Curtis confronted his neighbor as the neighbor was walking home. According to the probable cause affidavit, Curtis ran to the neighbor‘s house, swung his fists at the neighbor, threw a stool through the door, threw a chair at the neighbor, and broke a keyboard. Twenty-nine days later, Curtis was released on his own recognizance.
Over the next eighteen-plus months, the State filed one motion and Curtis filed several: almost all were related to Curtis’s competency. In February 2009, the trial court ordered a competency examination by two doctors. Both doctors submitted reports stating, among other things, that Curtis suffered from dementia and was not competent to stand trial. One doctor concluded that Curtis would “never be restored” to competency; the other concluded that it was “unlikely.”
In May 2009, Curtis filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that the charges violate his due process right to fundamental fairness because he is incompetent and unlikely to regain competency. In response, the State claimed that the motion to dismiss was “premature” for a number of reasons: there had been no judicial determination of incompetency to stand trial; there was no order by the trial court committing Curtis to the Division of Mental Health and Addiction (DMHA); there was no finding that Curtis was unlikely to regain competency; and Curtis had been incarcerated for only one month during the pendency of the case. The State further argued that there was “sufficient public interest” in proceeding with the charges. The trial court denied the motion to dismiss but stated that Curtis will never become competent. The trial court also declined to commit Curtis to the DMHA.
In September 2009, Curtis filed a motion to dismiss and discharge under Indiana Criminal Rule 4(C). The trial court issued an order almost identical to its previous order: it denied defendant‘s motion, stated Curtis will never become competent, and declined to commit him to the DMHA. Curtis sought, and was granted, an interlocutory appeal of that order.
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The State argues that once it filed its motion for a competency evaluation of Curtis, all subsequent delays were attributable to Curtis. Specifically, the State argues that because the trial court declined to rule on this motion, which was made in good faith, it would be “unfair” to count the time the motion remained pending toward the Rule 4(C) period. Thus, the State contends that the next 571 days are chargeable to Curtis.
The State did, in fact, make its motion for a competency evaluation of Curtis in good faith. Evidence at the suppression hearing revealed that Curtis‘s mental status was deteriorating, prompting the State‘s motion for a competency evaluation to determine whether Curtis could proceed to trial. See State v. Davis, 898 N.E.2d 281, 284 (Ind. 2008) (“Due process precludes placing a defendant on trial while she is incompetent.‖”.
When claims of incompetency are initiated by a defendant, the delays are chargeable to him or her. Id. at 286 n.3. Today we need not decide whether delays from the State’s good-faith motion for a defendant‘s competency evaluation are attributable to the defendant under Rule 4(C). Subsequent acts by the trial court, and not this motion, are determinative of whether Curtis has a valid 4(C) claim.
In this case, after the State filed its motion, the trial court “declined to rule on that motion at that time.” It is unclear from the record why. Then several days later, the trial court granted a continuance on its own motion. Again, nothing from the record reveals why. Over six months passed with no action from the State, Curtis, or the trial court until Curtis orally moved to exclude a witness. From then, it is indisputable that numerous delays are attributable to Curtis. But Curtis had already been entitled to discharge.
As stated above, court congestion or emergency does not count toward the Criminal Rule 4(C) period. But in this case, there is no indication in the record of court congestion or emergency. We “may not attribute delays in proceeding to trial to the defendant where the record is void regarding the reason for the delay.” Alter v. State, 860 N.E.2d 874, 878 (Ind. Ct. App. 2007). Accordingly, we cannot conclude that this six-month delay falls under an exception to the rule. See Isaacs v. State, 673 N.E.2d 757, 763 (Ind. 1996).
We recognize that the State contends it should not be “faulted” because the trial court de-clined to rule on its motion. But the focus of Criminal Rule 4 is not fault; it is to ensure early trials. Carr v. State, 934 N.E.2d 1096, 1100 (Ind. 2010) (“The Rule does not involve assessment or attribution of any fault or accountability on the part of the State, but generally imposes upon the justice system the obligation to bring a defendant to trial within a set time period . . . .”). The rule places an affirmative duty on the State to bring Curtis to trial and allows for limited exceptions to that timeframe. See Cook, 810 N.E.2d at 1065. Because none of those exceptions apply to the six-month period following the continuance at issue, the days must count toward the Rule 4(C) one-year period. And because the days that count toward the Rule 4(C) period exceed 365, the trial court should have granted Curtis’s motion to dismiss and discharge.
III. Due Process
Curtis also contends that the pending charges against him violate his right to fundamental fairness as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Court of Appeals agreed with this argument and accordingly ordered dismissal of the charges. Although Curtis is entitled to dismissal under Indiana Criminal Rule 4(C), we do not agree that he is entitled to dismissal on fundamental-fairness grounds. Thus we write to explain why the facts of Curtis’s case do not rise to the level of a due process violation.
In State v. Davis, this Court “examine[d] . . . whether it is a violation of fundamental fairness to hold criminal charges over the head of an incompetent defendant who will never be able to stand trial.” 898 N.E.2d at 283. In Davis, the State charged the defendant with criminal recklessness. Id. at 283. The defendant filed a motion for a competency evaluation, which the trial court granted. Id. After two doctors found the defendant not competent to stand trial, the trial court committed the defendant to the DMHA. Id. at 283–84. Over approximately the next thirty-three months, the defendant was confined in psychiatric institutions. Id. at 284.
The trial court then received a letter from the chief medical officer of the institution where the defendant was committed at the time, stating that the defendant would never be restored to competency. Id. The defendant filed a motion to dismiss the pending charges, arguing that her hospitalization was “tantamount to incarceration” because she had “accrued more days than the maximum possible confinement she could receive should she eventually be convicted.” Id. The trial court granted the motion. Id.
On appeal, we noted that application of the Due Process Clause is “’an uncertain enterprise which must discover what “fundamental fairness” consists of in a particular situation by first considering any relevant precedents and then by assessing the several interests that are at stake.’” Id. at 287 (quoting Lassiter v. Dept. of Soc. Servs. of Durham County, N.C., 452 U.S. 18, 24–25 (1981)). We then noted that there was no relevant precedent in Indiana on “whether there is an inherent denial of due process in holding pending criminal charges indefinitely over the head of one who will never have a chance to prove her innocence.” Id.
After evaluating the various interests at stake under the particular facts of the case, we affirmed the trial court and concluded as follows:
Because Davis’ pretrial confinement has extended beyond the maximum period of any sentence the trial court can impose, and because the State has advanced no argument that its interests outweigh Davis’ substantial liberty interest, we conclude it is a violation of basic notions of fundamental fairness as embodied in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to hold criminal charges over the head of Davis, an incompetent defendant, when it is apparent she will never be able to stand trial.
Id. at 290.
In Curtis’s case, the Court of Appeals noted that (1) Curtis had not been committed or confined by the State and (2) the time that had elapsed since Curtis‘s arrest had not exceeded the maximum imposable sentence. Curtis, 932 N.E.2d at 207. But the court determined that this was “a distinction without a difference” from the facts of Davis. Id. at 208. The Court of Appeals concluded that because there was no dispute that Curtis will remain incompetent, it violated due process to allow criminal charges to hang over Curtis’s head for the rest of his life. Id.
The State argues that Davis was predicated on two critical facts not present in Curtis’s case and that this distinction does, in fact, matter. The State further argues that the legislature has mandated the procedures for determinations of competency—procedures that were not followed in this case. As a result, the State contends that the Court of Appeals opinion sets forth an unsound rule: “when doctors initially opine that a defendant is unlikely to ever become competent, charges must be immediately dismissed.” We find these arguments compelling in light of the relevant precedent and the various interests at stake.