Opinion ID: 1257787
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Requirement of Tactical Delay

Text: In response to Petitioner's argument, the State looks to this Court's decision in Hundley v. Ashworth, 181 W.Va. 379, 382 S.E.2d 573 (1989). At issue in Hundley was the eight-year delay between the reporting of alleged child abuse to the Department of Human Services and the defendant's indictment. In addressing whether that delay constituted a due process violation, we recognized that the United States Supreme Court had apparently settled on a due process test for preaccusation delay. Id. at 381, 382 S.E.2d at 575. Relating the standard identified by the high court in U.S. v. Gouveia, 467 U.S. 180, 104 S.Ct. 2292, 81 L.Ed.2d 146 (1984), we observed that the high court had borrowed language from its earlier decisions of Marion and Lovasco in ruling that the Fifth Amendment requires the dismissal of an indictment, even it is brought within the statute of limitations, if the defendant can prove that the Government's delay in bringing the indictment was a deliberate device to gain an advantage over him and that it caused him actual prejudice in presenting his defense. Hundley, 181 W.Va. at 382, 382 S.E.2d at 576 (omitting citations). In light of the high court's seeming adoption of a due process standard for pre-accusation delay, [11] we reviewed our previous decision in Hey to employ a burden-shifting mechanism. Hundley, 181 W.Va. at 382, 382 S.E.2d at 576. That approach required that in those instances of extreme or gross delay where the prejudice was presumptive, the burden shifted to the prosecution to rebut the presumption by explaining the reason for the delay. This burden-shifting mechanism, as we stressed in Hundley, was invoked in those instances when the prosecution was aware of the defendant's location and identification ... throughout the period of delay. Id. at 382, 382 S.E.2d at 576 (quoting Hey, 269 S.E.2d at 394, syl. pt. 1, in part). And, in those limited factual instances where the Hey burden-shifting analysis was required, the State in rebutting the prejudice need only show that the delay was not deliberately designed to gain a tactical advantage over the defendant. Hundley, 181 W.Va. at 383, 382 S.E.2d at 577. Seeking to adopt a standard that flowed from our prior law and comported with the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Gouveia, we held in syllabus point two of Hundley: The Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article III, Section 10 of the West Virginia Constitution require the dismissal of an indictment, even if it is brought within the statute of limitations, if the defendant can prove that the State's delay in bringing the indictment was a deliberate device to gain an advantage over him and that it caused him actual prejudice in presenting his defense. 181 W.Va. at 380, 382 S.E.2d at 574, syl. pt. 2. Applying this standard to the facts of Hundley, we found that because the state agency's knowledge was not imputable to law enforcement, the State did not have actual knowledge of the abuse until five months prior to the indictment's return. [12] Consequently, we ruled that the Hundley defendant did not clear the first hurdle by showing that the State had, by deliberate design, delayed the bringing of the charges. Id. at 383, 382 S.E.2d at 577. Like the defendant in Hundley, the State in the case before us argues that Petitioner is similarly unable to clear the first hurdle of the test we adopted for identifying when preindictment delay requires the dismissal of an indictment. See Hundley, 181 W.Va. at 380, 382 S.E.2d at 574, syl. pt. 2. The thirteen-year delay between the offenses and the indictment, according to the State, is solely attributable to the specific request of Ms. Nicholas' parents that the matter not be prosecuted due to the young age of their daughter. [13] Only when Trooper Portillo was investigating another instance of alleged sexual abuse against Petitioner did he uncover the earlier allegations of sexual abuse allegedly committed by Petitioner against Ms. Nicholas. Rather than the aftermath of calculated efforts designed to gain an advantage over Petitioner, the State maintains that the delay resulted solely from the State's decision to honor the request of the alleged victim's parents. Based on his inability to demonstrate that the delay involved in this case was tactical in nature, the State argues that Petitioner has failed to meet step one of the test we adopted in Hundley. See id. at 380, 382 S.E.2d at 574, syl. pt. 2.