Monday, October 26, 2009
6th Amendment - Speedy Trial
A delay of at least one year in bringing a defendant to trial following arrest will trigger a presumption that the Sixth Amendment has been violated, with the level of judicial scrutiny increasing in direct proportion to the length of delay (United States v. Gutierrez, 891 F. Supp. 97 [E.D.N.Y. 1995]). The government may overcome this presumption by offering a "plausible reason" for the delay (United States v. Thomas, 55 F.3d 144 [4th Cir. 1995]). Courts generally will condone longer delays when the prosecution has requested additional time to prepare for a complex or difficult case. When prosecutors have offered only implausible reasons for delay, courts traditionally have dismissed the indictment, overturned the conviction, or vacated the sentence, depending on the remedy requested by the defendant. (Information from "http://law.jrank.org/pages/10299/Sixth-Amendment-Speedy-Trial.html")
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This should not be right. A citzen should not have to sit in that stage of the unknown before a trial for a year, especially if that person is innocent. The excuse of "This case is to hard." Should not be considered a plausible reason to push a trial back. It's far to common an occurance that the push back of medical and state cases goes to the "Fortunate" placement where legislature is written to limit the punishment on such cases. In my opinion 3 months is all that should be considered constitutional.
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