Opinion ID: 1189791
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: preaccusatory delay

Text: Martinez claims that he has satisfied the test enunciated by this Court in State v. Murphy, 99 Idaho 511, 584 P.2d 1236 (1978), to show that preaccusatory delay denied him due process. Under Murphy, the defendant must show substantial prejudice caused by the delay and that the delay was an intentional device used by the prosecution to gain a tactical advantage over the accused. Defendant maintains that he showed substantial prejudice because at least two defense witnesses had died during the decade-long delay. These witnesses would have testified to another source for the money allegedly received by Martinez for his role in the murder, which testimony would have been vital in refuting the state's case against him. Martinez further claims that he showed that the delay was intentional because the state could have tried the case in 1981 but chose not to. The prosecutor admitted that all the state's witnesses were known and available in 1981. We are not convinced. Although we do not doubt that the delay may have had an impact on witness availability under the first prong of Murphy, we need not consider that possibility because we find that Martinez failed to satisfy the second prong of Murphy. Martinez has failed to show affirmatively that the delay was intentional. He merely alleges that, because the prosecutor admitted that all the state's witnesses were known and available in 1981 and it could have tried the case in 1981 but chose not to, the delay was an intentional tactic to gain an advantage over the accused. We reject this conclusory allegation. We will not infer the motives of the prosecution from what is little more than the bare recital of the events between the defendants' arrest and the indictment. Murphy, 99 Idaho at 515, 584 P.2d at 1240.