Opinion ID: 2314684
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Prejudice to Appellants

Text: Prejudice (or lack of it) is an especially significant factor. Barker, supra, 407 U.S. at 532, 92 S.Ct. at 2193; Bethea, supra at 793; see United States v. (John) Jones, 173 U.S.App.D.C. 280, 298, 524 F.2d 834, 852 (1975). The speedy trial right is intended to protect against three types of prejudice: oppressive pretrial incarceration, anxiety, and impairment of the defense. Barker, supra, 407 U.S. at 532, 92 S.Ct. at 2193; Bethea, supra at 792-93. See also United States v. MacDonald, ___ U.S. ___, 102 S.Ct. 1497, 1502, 71 L.Ed.2d 696 (1982). A defendant need not affirmatively show prejudice in order to prevail on a speedy trial claim, Moore v. Arizona, 414 U.S. 25, 94 S.Ct. 188, 38 L.Ed.2d 183 (1973) (per curiam); and when  as here  the defendant's claim has prima facie merit, the government must make a showing which convincingly outweighs a defendant's assertion of prejudice. Day v. United States, D.C.App., 390 A.2d 957, 970 (1978) ( quoting United States v. Rucker, 150 U.S.App.D.C. 314, 316, 464 F.2d 823, 825 (1972)). The government is not, however, required to produce independent evidence rebutting the presumption of prejudice; it may carry its burden by arguing both the objective facts of record and inferences to be drawn from those facts. Day, supra at 971; see Jefferson v. United States, D.C.App., 382 A.2d 1030, 1032 (1978); Bolden, supra at 628-29.
All three appellants were incarcerated pending trial. Greene was held on a parole violation warrant and on three pending misdemeanor charges, as well as on the charges in this case. Grinnage and Parks also were held on parole violation warrants, as well as on the charges in this case. (Parks' parole, however, expired on September 29, 1978; thereafter, according to the trial court, he was held for fifteen months on the charges in this case alone.) This court stated in Bridgeford v. United States, D.C.App., 411 A.2d 633, 635 n. 3 (1980) that because a defendant's imprisonment while awaiting trial was equally due to the pendency of a criminal charge in another case, the delay did not result in excessive pretrial incarceration. See Day, supra at 971 (noting that, although the possibility of prejudice was not eliminated, it was significant that defendant was imprisoned for other crimes during most of the period between arrest and trial); Jefferson, supra at 1032 (To the extent that prejudice may be presumed from the fact of incarceration, the parole revocation breaks the nexus between the delay and the prejudice.) We conclude that, in light of the fact that Greene and Grinnage were not incarcerated solely on the charges in this case, the delay between arrest and trial did not cause oppressive pretrial incarceration. Parks' case is different. He was incarcerated for fifteen months on the present charges alone and thus suffered prejudice to the extent that this period exceeded the time reasonably necessary to bring Parks to trial.
Greene and Parks allege that they suffered anxiety from the delay in bringing them to trial. (Grinnage does not join in this claim.) Where, as here, the charge carries a life sentence and the defendant is incarcerated, a claim of anxiety is plausible. Compare United States v. Bolden, supra at 629 (anxiety was minimal where charge was misdemeanor, more serious charges were outstanding for part of period, and defendant was not imprisoned). Although an assertion of the right to a speedy trial is relevant to the question whether a defendant is anxious about delay, see Bethea, supra at 793, a mere assertion that one had been upset or concerned about a pending criminal prosecution is not sufficient to establish prejudicial anxiety. Reed v. United States, D.C.App., 383 A.2d 316, 320, cert. denied, 439 U.S. 871, 99 S.Ct. 203, 58 L.Ed.2d 183 (1978). Therefore, even when the government has the burden to rebut a defendant's assertion of anxiety, see Bethea, supra at 793, the government will prevail unless the defendant proffers objective, contemporaneous evidence of anxiety, such as prompt and persistent assertion of the desire for a speedy trial coupled with a demonstrable basis for the court's believing the delay is traumatic. See id. (defendant having no prior experience with criminal justice system persistently sought speedy trial on petty theft charge); see generally United States v. Ellis, D.C.App., 408 A.2d 971, 975 (1979) (Ferren, J., dissenting). Greene and Parks twice asserted their speedy trial rights  and with reasonable promptness. See Part III.C. supra. But Parks proffered no other demonstration of anxiety. As veteran defendants in the criminal justice system, neither Parks nor Greene claimed  or could have claimed  anxiety based on the unknown. Compare Bethea, supra at 793, Greene, however, did attach to his speedy trial motion some contemporaneous evidence of anxiety: letters he had written to his trial attorneys urging them to move swiftly because his wife was pregnant and they both were anxious about the impending birth. (Tragically, the baby died soon after birth in December 1978, six months after Greene's arrest.) We therefore agree with the trial court's finding that Parks offered no more than a mere assertion of anxiety, Reed, supra at 320, and we conclude, accordingly, that the government has rebutted that claim. The trial court also found that Greene offered only a mere assertion, within the meaning of Reed. To the contrary, Greene's letters to his attorney reflecting concern about a speedy trial were objective, contemporaneous evidence of anxiety. But Greene's letters (of record) ended after January 1979, and thus their relevance substantially abated beyond the first seven months after arrest, a period during which no one reasonably could have expected this complex case to come to trial  and thus not a period of delay. See Day, supra at 966. We therefore must conclude that Greene's anxiety claim also fails.
The interest in presenting an unimpaired defense is the most serious interest protected by the speedy trial right. Barker, supra, 407 U.S. at 532, 92 S.Ct. at 2193; Warren, supra at 836. In asserting this issue, an appellate court must give deference to the trial court's post-verdict findings of fact. Reid v. United States, D.C. App., 402 A.2d 835, 837 (1979); Bethea, supra at 793; see United States v. MacDonald, 435 U.S. 850, 858, 98 S.Ct. 1547, 1551, 56 L.Ed.2d 18 (1978). Greene asserts that the delay weakened his defense because, at trial, former Metropolitan Police Officer Steven Smith no longer could remember anything about the occasion on which he stopped William Duncan in the vicinity of the murder. [24] The trial court found, however  and the record supports the finding  that Smith's lapse of memory did not significantly prejudice Greene's defense. The evidence before the jury included a police form containing all the information that Smith called in to the station concerning his stop of Duncan. Cf. United States v. Sarvis, 173 U.S.App.D.C. 228, 233, 523 F.2d 1177, 1182 (1975) (no substantial impairment of defense where witness was unavailable at second trial but portions of her first-trial testimony were read to the jury). In any event, Greene's theory that Duncan was the murderer was severely undercut by the fact that Mary Bedney viewed two photo arrays which contained Duncan's picture but did not identify him. See note 17 supra. Grinnage alleges that the delay undermined his defense because of the faded memories of his alibi witnesses. The record supports the trial court's finding to the contrary. As the trial court stated, the difficulties in the alibi testimony appeared attributable more to fabrication than to impairment of memory. See note 18 & accompanying text. See also Forbes v. United States, D.C.App., 390 A.2d 453, 456 (1978); Day, supra at 972; Bowman v. United States, D.C.App., 385 A.2d 28, 32 (1978). Parks presented no evidence. He asserts an impairment of his defense based on the general proposition that the memories of prosecution witnesses faded. Since any loss of memory by these witnesses presumably harmed the prosecution as much as the defense, however, there is no basis for inferring that Parks was prejudiced. See Barker, supra, 407 U.S. at 521, 92 S.Ct. at 2187; Warren, supra at 836. In sum, the record supports the trial court's conclusion that the government had a strong case and that it was almost inconceivable that a more expeditious trial would have permitted these defendants to present a more effective defense or to punch any additional significant holes in the prosecutor's case. See Strickland, supra at 1332 ( citing United States v. Canty, 152 U.S.App. D.C. 103, 114, 469 F.2d 114, 125 (1972)).