Opinion ID: 652876
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Length of Pretrial Detention.

Text: 20 Millan and Rivera have been detained continuously since the day of their arrest, a period exceeding twenty-four months. Judge Kram has scheduled the second trial to begin on October 12, 1993, and expects that the retrial will take four to five months. See Millan, 824 F.Supp. at 39-40; Rivera, slip. op. at 3. Thus, by the end of the second trial, Millan and Rivera will have been detained between thirty and thirty-one months without a formal finding of guilt. 21 A period of pretrial detention of this length is, as the government concedes, a factor in appellees' favor in finding a due process violation. Cf. Gonzales Claudio, 806 F.2d at 341 (Detention that has lasted for fourteen months and, without speculation, is scheduled to last considerably longer, points strongly to a denial of due process.) (citing Zannino, 798 F.2d at 548 (we shall assume that in many, perhaps most, cases, sixteen months would be found to exceed the due process limitations on the duration of pretrial confinement)). It is not, however, dispositive. Length of detention will rarely by itself offend due process. Orena, 986 F.2d at 631. This court has upheld projected pretrial detention periods of up to thirty-two months. See Melendez-Carrion, 820 F.2d at 60-61. When one of the Melendez-Carrion defendants later renewed his motion for conditional release pending trial, we ordered his release only after he had spent over thirty-two months in detention, and faced the prospect of at least four additional months of pretrial detention in addition to many months of confinement during the trial itself. Ojeda Rios, 846 F.2d at 168-69. While ordering the detainee's release, furthermore, we cautioned that we were not attempting to set a bright-line precedent for future cases. Id. at 169. A prospective detention period of the length at issue here, while weighing in favor of release, does not, standing alone, establish that pretrial confinement has exceeded constitutional limits. 22 As noted earlier, Millan and Rivera moved to bar their retrial on the basis of double jeopardy, and Judge Kram denied that motion in her July 30, 1993 memorandum opinion and order. Millan and Rivera have contended on this appeal that in the event of such a denial, appeals to this court and, if necessary, to the Supreme Court would delay retrial to the point that due process would be clearly violated. In weighing potential future detention, however, we take into account non-speculative aspects of future confinement. Melendez-Carrion, 820 F.2d at 60; see also Gonzales Claudio, 806 F.2d at 341. Millan and Rivera's argument on this issue is highly speculative, for it is unlikely that appellate review of the denial of their double jeopardy motion will further delay the commencement of retrial. 23 It is settled law that double jeopardy bars retrial after a mistrial requested by the defense only if the government intentionally provoked the defense into making the request. See Oregon v. Kennedy, 456 U.S. 667, 676, 102 S.Ct. 2083, 2089, 72 L.Ed.2d 416 (1982); United States v. Huang, 960 F.2d 1128, 1133 (2d Cir.1992). In this case, Judge Kram has twice stated her belief that the government did not seek to provoke a mistrial, see Millan-Colon, 829 F.Supp. at 628-29; Millan, 817 F.Supp. at 1089, and we perceive no basis in the record before us for a contrary determination. A district court may retain jurisdiction and proceed to trial, despite the pendency of a defendant's interlocutory double jeopardy appeal, when the appeal is frivolous. See United States v. Salerno, 868 F.2d 524, 539 (2d Cir.) (collecting decisions by nine circuit courts of appeal), cert. denied, 491 U.S. 907, 109 S.Ct. 3192, 105 L.Ed.2d 700 493 U.S. 811, 110 S.Ct. 56, 107 L.Ed.2d 24 (1989). 24 Judge Kram has implicitly decided this issue adversely to appellants in this case by setting a firm trial date in the aftermath of her double jeopardy ruling. Based upon the presently available information and without any intention of prejudicing an appeal on a full record, we consider it very probable that the appeal from the denial of appellants' double jeopardy motion will not delay the commencement of the retrial. That appeal accordingly provides no nonspeculative basis to anticipate further delay in the commencement of the retrial of this case. 25