Opinion ID: 2000830
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: white's motion for discharge

Text: White further argues that the failure of the trial court to grant his motion for discharge was erroneous. Pursuant to Neb.Rev.Stat. § 29-1207 (Reissue 1995), every person indicted or informed against for any offense must be brought to trial within 6 months, as computed in § 29-1207. White asserts that the 6-month clock began to run on December 20, 1994, when the trial judge set a hearing on his postconviction relief motion and stated that `[t]he week of March 20, 1995, is hereby saved for a second trial....' Supplemental brief for appellant at 5. White characterizes this order as the granting of a new trial for purposes of the speedy trial statute. However, § 29-1207(3) states that in the case of a retrial following an appeal or a collateral attack, a new 6-month clock begins to run from the date of the mandate on remand. The date of the mandate on remand is the date on which the district court first takes action pursuant to the mandate. State v. Kinser, 256 Neb. 56, 588 N.W.2d 794 (1999). The first action of the trial court following the remand was a meeting with counsel on May 23, 1996. Thus, the 6-month clock began to run on that date. White's filing of the plea in bar on June 13, 1996, that led to White III, stopped the clock with 21 days having elapsed. The clock began running again as soon as the trial court regained jurisdiction over White's case by taking some action following our remand in White III. See State v. Ward, 257 Neb. 377, 597 N.W.2d 614 (1999). The trial court's first action following remand apparent from the record is an order filed August 20, 1998. The clock would have started again on that date but for White's filing of the motion for discharge from custody that preceded the court's order and is a subject of this appeal. Because White's filing of a motion stopped the clock before it could restart, no time has elapsed off the clock since the filing of White's plea in bar on June 13, 1996. Therefore, we conclude that White's second assignment of error, denial of his motion for discharge from custody, is without merit.