Opinion ID: 2347651
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Heading: Speedy Trial as Guaranteed by the Maryland Declaration of Rights

Text: Maryland Declaration of Rights, Art. 21 provides [t]hat in all criminal prosecutions, every man hath a right ... to a speedy trial.... Identical language was adopted as Art. 19 of the Declaration of Rights in the Constitution of 1776, prior to the adoption of the Constitution of the United States and thus prior to the adoption of the Sixth Amendment to that Constitution. This Court has said in construing Declaration of Rights, Art. 23 relative to due process that the decisions of the Supreme Court construing the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment are `practically direct authority. See, e.g., Bureau of Mines v. George's Creek, 272 Md. 143, 156, 321 A.2d 748 (1974); Rafferty v. Comptroller, 228 Md. 153, 161, 178 A.2d 896 (1962); Home Utilities Co. v. Revere, 209 Md. 610, 614, 122 A.2d 109 (1956); and Goldsmith v. Mead Johnson & Co., 176 Md. 682, 686-687, 7 A.2d 176 (1939), citing A. Niles, Maryland Constitutional Law (1915) 48. Judge Niles in his work divides the 45 articles of the Maryland Declaration of Rights into four classes. He places Art. 21 in Class C entitled Limitations on the power of the State similar to those limitations prescribed in the United States Constitution for the Federal Government. Although this Court does not appear to have commented relative to Art. 21 as it has with respect to Art. 23, Judge Niles says of Class C: These articles are, of course, of great importance. In regard to their construction, the decisions of the United States Court [sic], in reference to the corresponding provisions of the Federal Constitution, are adopted by our court as authority which is very persuasive, although not necessarily controlling. The Federal constitutional law, therefore, construing these articles of the Federal Constitution is pertinent upon the construction of articles of this class in our State Declaration of Rights. Id. at 13. This Court held in State v. Murdock, 235 Md. 116, 124, 200 A.2d 666 (1964), cert. denied 379 U.S. 914, that inaction on the part of an accused would constitute a waiver of his right to a speedy trial under Art. 21 of our Declaration of Rights. Accord Swift v. State, 224 Md. 300, 305, 167 A.2d 762 (1961), and Harris v. State, 194 Md. 288, 297, 71 A.2d 36 (1950). All of the above cited cases were decided prior to the decision of the Supreme Court in Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514, 92 S.Ct. 2182, 33 L.Ed.2d 101 (1972), which we shall hereafter discuss at length. The language used in Art. 21 of our Declaration of Rights relative to speedy trial is virtually identical with that in the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. If this case had arisen prior to Barker, we would say quickly upon the strength of our prior decisions that since Erbe did not request sentencing in the intervening period he is deemed to have waived any rights conferred upon him by Declaration of Rights, Art. 21. Although we certainly anticipate no such change, it is possible that the Supreme Court might change the views it expressed in Barker. Instances have been known of its changing its views. See e.g. the discussion in Mangum v. Md. St. Bd. of Censors, 273 Md. 176, 187-93, 328 A.2d 283 (1974), relative to obscenity. We need not decide today whether the concepts expressed in Murdock, Swift, and Harris remain viable in the light of Barker. It will be sufficient to state only that we shall for purposes of our decision today regard our discussion of the Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial as equally applicable to the right provided in Declaration of Rights, Art. 21.