Opinion ID: 2790079
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Government's Second Appeal

Text: As for the government's appeal of the second grant of a new trial in September 2011, Carpenter cannot argue that the government's position, which actually prevailed, was weak. He argues instead that the appeal took too long--twenty-six months in total--because the government failed to diligently prosecute the appeal. Nineteen months elapsed between the government's filing of a second notice of appeal in September 2011 and when a briefing schedule was set in May 2013. Carpenter also points to the government's successful motion, after the briefing schedule was -21- set, for a forty-four-day extension to allow new counsel to familiarize herself with the record. The unusual passage of nineteen months between the filing of the appeal and the setting of a briefing schedule was not, however, due to any fault of the government. Rather, it was Carpenter's own cross-appeal and related motions that slowed down the government's appeal. As discussed above, after the government filed its notice of appeal on September 27, 2011, Carpenter on September 29 filed his own notice of appeal, which challenged the denial of his motions for acquittal and mistrial. On November 7, 2011, he moved to consolidate that appeal with the government's appeal. In March 2012, he also moved in the district court to dismiss the indictment on Sixth Amendment grounds. When the district court in May 2012 denied that motion, citing the pending appeals, Carpenter moved for this court to remand the case to the district court to rule on the Sixth Amendment speedy trial motion. We denied this motion in May 2013, and also dismissed Carpenter's cross-appeal for lack of jurisdiction.10 At that point, with Carpenter's own predicate motions resolved in due course, a briefing schedule for the government's appeal was set. 10 The court determined that the orders from which Carpenter appealed were not appealable collateral orders. As mentioned above, Carpenter's petition for certiorari challenging this determination was denied. Carpenter, 134 S. Ct. at 901. -22- Carpenter is correct that the government's request for an extension then slowed things down by forty-four days, but the fact that this extension was warranted is evidenced by this court's granting the government's motion for an extension and denying Carpenter's motion to dismiss for lack of diligent prosecution. With that final motion resolved, the case proceeded apace to argument on November 7, 2013, and a decision reversing the district court's grant of a new trial on November 25, 2013. Carpenter, 736 F.3d at 632. Carpenter cites no authority to suggest that the government should have sought expedited briefing, much less that it should have done so while Carpenter's own motion to remand was pending. Yet another motion in a motion-laden case could hardly have helped the goal of swift resolution. We therefore agree with the government that the district court did not abuse its discretion in determining that the second appeal occasioned no unwarranted delay in the conclusion of the case.