Opinion ID: 1660137
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Viewed in retrospect, several United States Supreme Court decisions presaged material changes to come within the ambit of speedy trial rights.

Text: Klopfer v. North Carolina, 386 U.S. 213, 221-226, 87 S.Ct. 988, 992-995, 18 L.Ed.2d 1 (1967), unmistakably determined the Sixth Amendment right to speedy trial is applicable, via the Fourteenth Amendment, to state prosecutions. Then Smith v. Hooey, 393 U.S. 374, 376-383, 89 S.Ct. 575, 576-579, 21 L.Ed.2d 607 (1969), held that incidents of a federal prisoner's second-class citizenship do not abridge his speedy trial rights and he is not, by reason of incarceration, precluded from effectively asserting a violation thereof. Even more predictably the court said in Dickey v. Florida, 398 U.S. 30, 37-38, 90 S.Ct. 1564, 1568-1569, 26 L.Ed.2d 26 (1970): The right to a speedy trial is not a theoretical or abstract right but one rooted in hard reality in the need to have charges promptly exposed. If the case for the prosecution calls on the accused to meet charges rather than rest on the infirmities of the prosecution's case, as is the defendant's right, the time to meet them is when the case is fresh. Stale claims have never been favored by the law, and far less so in criminal cases. Although a great many accused persons seek to put off the confrontation as long as possible, the right to a prompt inquiry into criminal charges is fundamental and the duty of the charging authority is to provide a prompt trial. (Emphasis supplied). The thought thus expressed was accentuated in a special concurrence by Justice Brennan, 398 U.S. at 48-51, 90 S.Ct. at 1574-1575 where he predictably observed: The view that an accused loses his right to a speedy trial by silence or inaction is open to question   . This is followed by an in depth analysis of the subject with abundant supportive citations. See also United States v. Baron, 336 F. Supp. 303 (S.D.N.Y.1971); Glasgow v. State, 469 P.2d 682, 684-687 (Alaska 1970); People v. Collins, 388 Mich. 680, 202 N.W.2d 769, 771-772 (1972).