Over in this thread a woman was describing the travails of her brother through the court system. Among many issues in his case he needs to be extradited to Oregon and is currently being bounced from place to place outside of Oregon till they get theri act together. Given that his crime* was committed in Oregon I suppose he needs to be arraigned in Oregon. Nevertheless, he is getting to spend several weeks in prison while they get his moving papers in order.
I posted in that thread that this seemed to fly in the face of your constitutional right to a speedy trial. As of now the guy mentioned above hasn’t even been formally charged with anything (again I am guessing that must take place in Oregon). As such he is denied a Public Defender and has (seemingly) no recourse to get out of jail (i.e. bonded out).
‘Speedy trial’ is a bit of a vague term. I know some states specify in their own constitutions the time it should take to get to trial. More broadly though has anything ever been decided on this by the SCOTUS? Time from arrest to charging? Time from charging to being provided representation? Time before you get arraigned? Time before you get your day in court? It seems the person mentioned in the thread I linked to is getting a nice tour of various penal institutions with no recourse to putting a halt to it for some time. I just wondered if there was anything one could do in his situation to put the brakes on the whole thing for at least a sanity check or something.
[sub]*-- For the sake of this thread and the one I linked to the brother of the poster (in the other thread) is being presumed 100% innocent. Of course, it’ll take the DA and courts and maybe juries to ultimately decide that. Still, for the sake of argument let’s assume this person is truly innocent of any crime and is getting an unfair tour of the US penal system.[/sub]
You may be interested in the information presented on this page, http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/eousa/foia_reading_room/usam/title9/crm00628.htm about the federal “Speedy Trial Act of 1974.” Note, however, that this information pertains to criminal trials in the U.S. federal court system (and I believe the accused in the thread Whack-a-Mole refers to is being charged under a state statute).
Still, the Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial is applicable to state prosecutions as well. The problem is there is no bright-line Constitutional rule as to when a trial is or isn’t speedy enough, and SCOTUS has said that the most they can do is identify the factors in determining when a defendant has been deprived of the right: the length of delay, the reason for the delay, the defendant’s assertion of his right, and predjudice to the defendant, known as “the Barker Factors” from Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 504 (1972). Those are merely the Constitutional guarantees, though, which are minimums below which states or the feds can’t go. The federal Speedy Trial Act of 1974 imposed strict guidelines offering more protection than the Barker factors, so those are used in federal courts today. I imagine many states have similar statutory or constitutional provisions to serve the same purpose.
Thanks for the responses so far. I still have some questions though.
For instance, I thought you could be detained for only so long (2-3 days I thought) before being charged with your crime. The guy in the link above has spent three weeks in detention with no charges filed. Since no charges have been filed he has no right to a Public Defender. Because he is currently in a state that is not prosecuting they will not provide a Public Defender. The reasoning for all of this is he needs to be tried in Oregon and needs to be extradited there. The story has it that he willingly signed his extradition papers and is ready to go with no fuss. Still, he gets bounced around the system with no resolution in sight.
Is it just me or does it seem he is being detained for too long without access to an attorney or anything else that could help him? That the judicial system needs to move with a littel more alacrity in this matter. I can understand if they say it takes a few extra days to get his transfer arranged but three weeks seems excessive.
Okay, since this is tangentially related to a real life case: this is not legal advice, no attorney-client relationship is created here, please refer to a competent attorney licensed in the applicable jurisdiction(s) for legal advice.
If there hasn’t been a prior finding of probable cause to detain, there has to be a preliminary hearing to determine probable cause within 48 hours of arrest. Here, though, there has been a prior determination; a magistrate issued a warrant for his arrest. It’s up to Oregon now to make reasonable efforts to secure the presence of the defendant and ensure that he receives a speedy trial. Is three weeks reasonable? I don’t know, but my WAG (and that’s all it is) is a court might say yes. You are talking about moving someone in custody from Arizona to Oregon, no small task.
Ok…that’s fine. Then doesn’t Oregon owe the guy a Public Defender right now? I thought as soon as you were charged with the crime (which I presume is what you’re saying the magistrate effectively did) you have a right to representation. However, the guy is presumably not allowed one till he is arraigned in Oregon (what happens at an arraignment anyway and are you supposed to have an attorney provided beforehand?).
Well, he’s been arrested on a finding of probable cause, but not necessarily formally charged. He’s charged with the crime when a grand jury in the Oregon County where the alleged crime took place hands down an indictment. You do have a right to representation at any time, but the court doesn’t necessarily have to appoint representation for you just yet at this stage. At any rate, counsel for an indigent defendant is usually appointed at the time of the arraignment if they don’t already have a lawyer. At the arraignment they fix the identity of the defendant, appoint counsel if necessary, and the defendant is allowed to enter a plea.
In the relatively small town my Dad pratices in, appointment of counsel is set up ahead of time in the county jail. Inmates have a list of lawyers to choose from, and submit a form to the court. A lawyer then meets with them within 24 hours, and usually has them sign a waiver of arraignment. Then they start preparing for trial or plea bargaining. Not sure how it’s done in larger places like my own Harris County (I don’t currently work on the state level), but I believe that the federal public defender’s office works similarly.