Opinion ID: 479235
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Factors Concerning the Delay of Retrial

Text: 104 A substantial portion of the ten month lapse between the first trial and retrial resulted from continuances requested by defendant. The second trial (Counts 23 and 24) ran from May 18 to June 3, 1981. Defendant did not seek an earlier retrial of Counts 1 through 22. 105 He argues that he was prejudiced by the death of a witness, his brother, Scott Kimberlin. He asserts that Scott would have corroborated the testimony of defendant and of another witness that Scott Kimberlin had possession of the Tovex after May 1975. Scott was available for the first trial, but defendant says he did not call him because at the first trial the government produced no evidence that defendant retained possession of the Tovex after May, 1975. If the unavailability of Scott had any adverse effect on defendant's case, it cannot fairly be ascribed to the delay in the retrial. Scott was killed only one week after the first trial. 106 Defendant also claims he was prejudiced by what he describes as the loss of the diary of Tina Duerden. 107 Tina Duerden was an apparently disinterested witness who was employed at a restaurant where defendant and two other witnesses testified they had eaten the evening of September 2, 1978. They testified concerning an incident in which defendant had comforted the young employee, who accidentally broke some dishes, and had given her a substantial tip. At trial it turned out that Tina was in Denmark, and after a telephone conversation, counsel stipulated that if present she would testify that she recalled a similar incident. She could not remember the date, but did believe I wrote about the incident in a journal. Tina's mother testified that she found both journals, but could not find the entry referred to. Obviously it is questionable whether there was any loss of a diary, and further, defendant may well have been at the restaurant the evening of September 2 and also have been at the site of explosion No. 5 within the hour before 12:15 AM, September 3, the time it went off. 108 In summary, we conclude, balancing the factors described, that neither the delay occurring before the first trial, nor the delay between trials, was a denial of defendant's Sixth Amendment speedy trial rights. 109 Defendant also argues that the forty-five month delay in indictment for the receipt of explosives on May 14, 1975 violated the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause. Counts 23 and 24, however, are not before us in Appeal No. 82-1025. 110