Opinion ID: 470103
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: When Trial Commences.

Text: Under the Speedy Trial Act: 7 In any case in which a plea of not guilty is entered, the trial of a defendant charged in an information or indictment with the commission of an offense shall commence within seventy days from the filing date (and making public) of the information or indictment, or from the date the defendant has appeared before a judicial officer of the court in which such charge is pending, whichever date last occurs. 8 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3161(c)(1) (emphasis added). The post-voir dire delay at issue here presents the question of what must be done to satisfy the commencement requirement of the act. Several circuits have concluded that under this provision a jury trial commences at the voir dire. See, e.g., United States v. Manfredi, 722 F.2d 519, 524 (9th Cir.1983); United States v. Howell, 719 F.2d 1258, 1262 (5th Cir.1983), cert. denied, 467 U.S. 1228, 104 S.Ct. 2683, 81 L.Ed.2d 878 (1984); United States v. Gonzalez, 671 F.2d 441, 443 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, 456 U.S. 994, 102 S.Ct. 2279, 73 L.Ed.2d 1291 (1982). In addition, the Plan for Prompt Disposition of Criminal Cases in effect in the Western District of New York, which has been approved by the Second Circuit Judicial Council pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3165(c), provides that [a] trial in a jury case shall be deemed to commence at the beginning of voir dire. Western District of New York, Plan for Prompt Disposition of Criminal Cases Sec. 4(e)(3). In this case, the district court relied on both Gonzalez, 671 F.2d at 443, and the western district plan in concluding that despite the twenty-three-month hiatus between voir dire and the rest of the trial, Stayton was not denied his statutory right to a speedy trial, because the voir dire did take place, and the trial therefore commenced, within the seventy-day limit authorized by the act. 9 In United States v. Fox, 788 F.2d 905 (2d Cir.1986), another panel of this court recently addressed issues similar to those presented here based on a delay of five months between voir dire and the rest of the trial. There, we held that, although voir dire marks the technical commencement of the trial, the strictures of the Speedy Trial Act are not fully satisfied by mere technical commencement. In the absence of a request by either side, or of any apparent justification, for an adjournment of five months after the voir dire was completed, we could not accept the technical commencement of the trial, voir dire, as satisfying the requirements of the act. Id. at 909. We therefore ordered the indictment dismissed and remanded to require the district judge to give reasons for the delay and to determine whether the dismissal should be with or without prejudice. Inasmuch as we face a delay here of not just five, but twenty-three months, we find it necessary to expand upon the holding in Fox to provide further guidance on the subject of post-voir dire delays. 10 The Speedy Trial Act was designed to effectuate the interests of society in general and of the defendant in particular by ensuring that our courts mete out speedy justice. United States v. Didier, 542 F.2d 1182, 1188 & n. 7 (2d Cir.1976). The prosecutor, defense counsel, and the court each plays a role in insuring that the interests of the public and the defendant in a speedy trial are protected. The Act controls the conduct of the parties and the court itself during criminal pretrial proceedings. Not only must the court police the behavior of the prosecutor and the defense counsel, it must also police itself. United States v. Pringle, 751 F.2d 419, 429 (1st Cir.1984). 11 A reasonable post-voir dire delay does not offend this congressional purpose, but the reasonableness of a delay must be determined in the context of the Speedy Trial Act itself, which is premised on strict time limits tempered by certain exceptions designed to accommodate the vagaries of the trial process. Thus, if the number of days of delay between the voir dire and the actual presentation of the case to a sworn jury cannot be justified in light of the reasons for the delay, the act is violated. 12 In the typical case in which voir dire occurs within the seventy-day limit but the jury is sworn beyond that time period, the parties expect that the swearing of the jury and the presentation of the case will follow soon after voir dire. For instance, in Howell the fifth circuit perceived no violation of the act in the district court's decision to delay the start of Howell's trial until seven days after the voir dire to allow a civil trial to proceed first. 719 F.2d at 1262. 13 Similarly, in Gonzalez the voir dire was completed, and the jury was empanelled but not sworn, on the seventieth day following Gonzalez's indictment. Because the trial judge was to attend a judicial conference the following week, the parties and the court agreed to recess the trial until eleven days after the voir dire. See 671 F.2d at 442. Such a delay was found to be permissible because it did not violate the spirit of the act. Id. at 443-44. Still, the Gonzalez court 14 caution[ed] that our decision not be viewed as a license to evade the Act's spirit by commencing voir dire within the prescribed time limits and then taking a prolonged recess before the jury is sworn and testimony is begun. The district courts must adhere to both the letter and the spirit of the Act, and we will not hesitate to find that a trial has not actually commenced within the requisite time if we perceive an intent to merely pay the Act lip service. 15 Id. at 444 (emphasis added). 16 Here, the twenty-three months between voir dire and the swearing of the jury unreasonably prolonged the process. We recognize that the Western District of New York currently faces an overloaded docket, but the court's crowded calendar [is not a] sufficient reason for delay, Didier, 542 F.2d at 1188, beyond what may be authorized by the Speedy Trial Act itself, see, e.g., 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3161(h). The sheer length of this delay in the context of a record that does not hint at a single justifying reason leads us to conclude that there can be no justification. A delay of the magnitude imposed on defendant here blatantly offends the purpose and spirit of the act; voir dire may not be used as a safe harbor for unreasonably postponing a federal criminal trial. See Gonzalez, 671 F.2d at 444. 17 The act does not, of course, leave the court helpless in the face of the many problems inherent in bringing all parties, counsel, jurors, witnesses, and the court together at the same time so that a criminal trial may proceed. For example, there are numerous provisions built into the act that automatically exclude certain commonplace delays encountered in a criminal trial. See, e.g., 18 U.S.C. Secs. 3161(h)(1)-3161(h)(7). In addition, on the motion of either party, or of the court sua sponte, the court may grant a continuance for anticipated periods of delay if it finds that the ends of justice served by taking such action outweigh the best interest of the public and the defendant in a speedy trial. Id. Sec. 3161(h)(8)(A). Any such continuance, however, may be granted only upon consideration of the factors listed in section 3161(h)(8)(B), and, as we have elsewhere noted, the district judge must indicate not retrospectively, but at the time of granting an ends-of-justice continuance, that he is doing so upon a balancing of the factors. United States v. Tunnessen, 763 F.2d 74, 78 (2d Cir.1985). 18 Apparently because he believed that conducting the voir dire was, by itself, enough to satisfy the statutory requirement for a speedy trial, the district judge did not consider the possible application of any of the time exclusions authorized by the act. There is no claim here, however, that those exclusions could conceivably cover the twenty-three month period. Nor was there any determination by the district judge that any of the post-voir dire delay in this case should have been excluded to serve the ends of justice. On the contrary, the district judge was operating under a belief, which we hold here, as did the panel in United States v. Fox, to have been erroneous, that the Speedy Trial Act had been satisfied once the voir dire was conducted within seventy days. Ends of justice continuances cannot be used in hindsight to mop up such excessive delay, as Congress intended that the decision to grant an ends-of-justice continuance be prospective, not retroactive. Tunnessen, 763 F.2d at 77. 19