Source: https://openjurist.org/393/us/374
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 00:21:25+00:00

Document:
Fred M. HOOEY, Judge, Criminal District Court of Harris County, Texas.
In Klopfer v. North Carolina, 386 U.S. 213, 87 S.Ct. 988, 18 L.Ed.2d 1, this Court held that, by virtue of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial1 is enforceable against the States as 'one of the most basic rights preserved by our Constitution.' Id., at 226, 87 S.Ct. at 995. The case before us involves the nature and extent of the obligation imposed upon a State by that constitutional guarantee, when the person under the state criminal charge is serving a prison sentence imposed by another jurisdiction.
In 1960 the petitioner was indicted in Harris County, Texas, upon a charge of theft. He was then, and still is, a prisoner in the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas.2 Shortly after the state charge was filed against him, the petition r mailed a letter to the Texas trial court requesting a speedy trial. In reply, he was notified that 'he would be afforded a trial within two weeks of any date (he) might specify at which he could be present.'3 Thereafter, for the next six years, the petitioner, 'by various letters, and more formal so-called 'motions," continued periodically to ask that he be brought to trial. Beyond the response already alluded to, the State took no steps to obtain the petitioner's appearance in the Harris County trial court. Finally, in 1967, the petitioner filed in that court a verified motion to dismiss the charge against him for want of prosecution. No action was taken on the motion.
In refusing to issue a writ of mandamus, the Supreme Court of Texas relied upon and reaffirmed its decision of a year earlier in Cooper v. State, 400 S.W.2d 890.4 In that case, as in the present one, a state criminal charge was pending against a man who was an inmate of a federal prison. He filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus ad prosequendum in the Texas trial court, praying that he be brought before the court for trial, or that the charge against him be dismissed. Upon denial of that motion, he applied to the Supreme Court of Texas for a writ of mandamus. In denying the application, the court acknowledged that an inmate of a Texas prison would have been clearly entitled to the relief sought as a matter of constitutional right,5 but held that 'a different rule is applicable when two separate sovereignties are involved.' 400 S.W.2d, at 891. The court viewed the difference as 'one of power and authority.' Id., at 892. While acknowledging that if the state authorities were 'ordered to proceed with the prosecution * * * and comply with certain conditions specified by the federal prison authorities, the relator would be produced for trial in the state court,' id., at 891, it nonetheless denied relief because it thought '(t)he true test should be the power and authority of the state unaided by any waiver, permission or act of grace of any other authority.' Id., at 892. Four Justices dissented, expressing their belief that 'where the state has the power to afford the accused a speedy trial it is under a duty to do so.' Id., at 893.
The historic origins of the Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial were traced in some detail by The Chief Justice in his opinion for the Court in Klopfer, supra, 386 U.S., at 223-226, 87 S.Ct., at 993—995, and we need not review that history again here. Suffice it to remember that this constitutional guarantee has universally6 been thought essential to protect at least three basic demands of criminal justice in the Anglo-American legal system: '(1) to prevent undue and oppressive incarceration prior to trial, (2) to minimize anxiety and concern accompanying public accusation and (3) to limit the possiblities that long delay will impair the ability of an accused to defend himself.' United States v. Ewell, 383 U.S. 116, 120, 86 S.Ct. 773, 776, 15 L.Ed.2d 627. These demands are both aggravated and compounded in the case of an accused who is imprisoned by another jurisdiction.
Finally, it is self-evident that 'the possibilities that long delay will impair the ability of an accused to defend himself' are markedly increased when the accused is incarcerated in another jurisdiction. Confined in a prison, perhaps far from the place where the offense covered by the outstanding charge allegedly took place, his ability to confer with potential defense witnesses, or even to keep track of their whereabouts, is obviously impaired. And, while 'evidence and witnesses disappear, memories fade, and events lose their perspective,'10 a man isolated in prison is powerless to exert his own investigative efforts to mitigate these erosive effects of the passage of time.
'* * * The Court of Appeals majority appears to have reasoned that because the State would have had to request an exercise of discretion on the part of federal authorities, it was under no obligation to make any such request. Yet as Judge Aldrich, sitting by designation, pointed out in dissent below, 'the possibility of a refusal is not the equivalent of asking and receiving a rebuff.' (Barber v. Page, 10 Cir.) 381 F.2d (479) at 481. In short, a witness is not 'unavailable' for purposes o the foregoing exception to the confrontation requirement unless the prosecutorial authorities have made a goodfaith effort to obtain his presence at trial. The State made no such effort here, and, so far as this record reveals, the sole reason why Woods was not present to testify in person was because the State did not attempt to seek his presence. The right of confrontation may not be dispensed with so lightly.' 390 U.S., at 723—725, 88 S.Ct., at 1321 (footnotes omitted).
'None of the reasons suggested, either in the order overruling relator's motion or trial or in the answer to the petition for mandamus here, are good or have any foundation in law or justice. Certainly, under our Constitution and our laws, the relator is entitled to a trial on the charge against him.' 114 Tex., at 470, 271 S.W., at 379—380.
See Schindler, Interjurisdictional Conflict and the Right to a Speedy Trial, 35 U.Cin.L.Rev. 179, 182—183 (1966).
See, e.g., Evans v. Mitchell, 200 Kan. 290, 436 P.2d 408 (holding that Kansas had no duty to bring to trial a person serving a 15-year sentence in a Washington prison, although the pendency of the Kansas charge prevented any possibility of clemency or conditional pardon in Washington and made it impossible for the prisoner to take part in certain rehabilitation programs or to become a trusty in the Washington prison). The existence of an outstanding criminal charge no longer automatically makes a prisoner ineligible for parole in the federal prison system. 28 CFR § 2.9 (1968); see Rules of the United States Board of Parole 17—18 (1965). But as late as 1959 the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons wrote: 'Today the prisoners with detainers are evaluated individually but there remains a tendency to consider them escape risks and to assign them accordingly. In many instances this evaluation and decision may be correct, for the detainer can aggravate the escape potentiality of a prisoner.' Bennett, 'The Last Full Ounce,' 23 Fed.Prob. No. 2, p. 20, at 21 (1959). See also Note, Detainers and the Correctional Process, 1966 Wash. U.L.Q. 417, 418—423.

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