Opinion ID: 331634
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Prosecution's Delay in Seeking Indictment--

Text: 5 Defendant contends that the government's delay of ten months from the time the offense was committed until an information was filed handicapped him in his preparation of a defense and violated his right to a speedy trial as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment. Specifically, the defense argues that on the date of the incident in the visitors' room, defendant was temporarily insane as a result of withdrawal from morphine, a drug to which he allegedly was addicted, and that, accordingly, he was not responsible for his actions. The defense bolsters its argument by medical testimony indicating that all evidence of withdrawal is gone by the fifth day after deprivation of the drug. Therefore, according to this argument, by not indicting him quickly, the government failed to alert the defendant of the need to obtain an attorney and to gather evidence of his medical incapacity due to drug withdrawal. Because of this delay all evidence upon which a temporary insanity defense could be based was forever lost and defendant's defense was irreparably prejudiced. 6 In analyzing a speedy trial argument, the applicable cases can be classified into two groups: pre-accusation delay 1 and post-accusation delay. United States v. Marion, 404 U.S. 307, 92 S.Ct. 455, 30 L.Ed.2d 468 (1971), has established the standard for evaluating a claim of delay at the pre-accusation level. In that case the defendant argued for dismissal of his indictment on Sixth Amendment grounds, after a three-year delay between commission of the offense and indictment occurred. Rejecting the defendant's argument, the Supreme Court held that 'the Sixth Amendment speedy trial provision has no application until the putative defendant in some way becomes an 'accused, id. at 313, 92 S.Ct. at 459, 30 L.Ed.2d at 474, and that, the primary guarantee against prosecutorial delay in seeking an indictment being the applicable statute of limitations, the government has no duty to 'discover, investigate, and accuse any person within any particular period of time.' Id. at 313, 92 S.Ct. at 459, 30 L.Ed.2d at 474. The Court held, however, that a case can be dismissed for pre-accusation delay, but only if the defense shows actual prejudice and demonstrates that the delay was an intentional device by the prosecution to gain a tactical advantage. Id. at 324, 92 S.Ct. at 465, 30 L.Ed.2d at 481. 7 Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514, 92 S.Ct. 2182, 33 L.Ed.2d 101 (1972), is the case most often cited for the standard to be applied in post-accusation delay questions. In Barker, the defendant was indicted for murder in September, 1958, but was not brought to trial until October, 1963, after sixteen continuances had been obtained by the prosecution. Noting that the concept of speedy trial is vague, the Court in Barker refused to set down a final period of time by which the government must bring a criminal defendant to trial. Rather, it established a balancing test, triggered by a presumptively prejudicial delay, by which post-accusation delay cases must be evaluated. The four factors to be balanced include (1) length of the delay, (2) reason for the delay, (3) defendant's assertion of his right to a speedy trial, and (4) prejudice resulting from the delay in bringing defendant to trial. Id. at 530, 92 S.Ct. at 2192, 33 L.Ed.2d at 117. 8 In examining defendant's Sixth Amendment claim, it is important to determine at the outset whether the actual prejudice test of Marion or the balancing test of Barker is appropriate. Obviously, the Marion test, requiring a showing of actual prejudice and intentional prosecutorial delay, is a harder test for claimants to meet than the more flexible balancing test of Barker. Not surprisingly, defendant argues that the Barker test is applicable in this case. The key in determining which test to apply rests on the question whether defendant was an 'accused' during the ten-month delay in question. 9 Defendant argues that placement of him in administrative segregation for thirty-five days constituted an arrest, thereby rendering him an accused, subject to the Barker balancing test on delay. We cannot accept the argument that administrative segregation of a prisoner is equivalent to his arrest. First, we note the language in Marion explaining why arrest is a significant event triggering the protection of the Sixth Amendment: 10 . . . Arrest is a public act that may seriously interfere with the defendant's liberty, whether he is free on bail or not, and that may disrupt his employment, drain his financial resources, curtail his associations, subject him to public obloquy, and create anxiety in him, his family and his friends. . . . So viewed, it is readily understandable that it is either a formal indictment or information or else the actual restraints imposed by arrest and holding to answer a criminal charge that engage the particular protections of the speedy trial provision of the Sixth Amendment. Id. 404 U.S. at 320, 92 S.Ct. at 463, 30 L.Ed.2d at 478--79. (Emphasis added.) 11 Obviously, administrative segregation does not contain those incidents associated in Marion with arrest; that is, administrative segregation of a prisoner does not 'disrupt his employment, drain his financial resources, curtail his associations, subject him to public obloquy,' etc. 2 In addition, Marion speaks of the 'actual restraints imposed by arrest and holding to answer a criminal charge' as engaging the protection of the speedy trial provision of the Sixth Amendment. Id. at 320, 92 S.Ct. at 463, 30 L.Ed.2d at 479. (Emphasis added.) Here the defendant was not 'charged' with a crime 3 and hence was not subject to the 'anxiety and concern accompanying public accusation' that Marion saw as a major reason for giving an accused a speedy trial. Id. at 320, 92 S.Ct. at 463, 30 L.Ed.2d at 478. 12 More importantly, we do not hold administrative segregation to constitute an arrest because of what we consider to be the essential nature of that act. 4 That is, administrative segregation is an internal disciplinary means of classifying prisoners, utilized under the almost total discretion of prison officials, and subject to the interference of the courts only in a case of wide abuse of that discretion. Royal v. Clark, 447 F.2d 501 (5th Cir. 1971), Theriault v. Mississippi, 433 F.2d 990 (5th Cir. 1970). Used as a method of disciplining or investigating inmates who break prison regulations, of protecting certain inmates from members of the general population, and of providing a general cooling-down period for inmates involved in events that could disrupt the general population, administrative segregation accompanying the breach of a prison regulation is in no way related to or dependent on prosecution by the federal government of an inmate for that same offense as a violation of federal criminal law. According to the testimony of Abbie Clark, a prison official at the Atlanta Penitentiary, administrative segregation would have occurred regardless of any action taken by the United States prosecutor's office. While this court has not specifically addressed the issue of the relationship between administrative segregation and arrest, the Tenth Circuit has held that administrative segregation cannot be considered an arrest. Rivera v. Toft, 477 F.2d 534 (10th Cir. 1973). Similarly, this court, in allowing prison officials almost total discretion over the use of administrative segregation, has recognized the independence that segregation enjoys from the traditional criminal processes that are subject to careful judicial scrutiny. In Young v. Wainwright, 449 F.2d 338 (5th Cir. 1971), an inmate sought an injunction to obtain his release from segregation on the ground that he had violated no prison regulations; this court denied the injunction, holding that the classification of inmates is a matter of prison administration with which federal officials are reluctant to interfere. Id. at 339. We have likewise noted that administrative discipline utilized by prison officials for a particular offense is independent from criminal prosecution for that same offense for double jeopardy purposes. United States v. Williamson, 469 F.2d 88 (5th Cir. 1972); Keaveny v. United States, 405 F.2d 821 (5th Cir. 1969). 13 Having determined that administrative segregation of a prisoner is an internal disciplinary measure that is totally independent from the criminal processes of arrest and prosecution, we hold that administrative segregation alone of the defendant did not render him an 'accused.' Because he was not an accused during the alleged delay, defendant's claim must be judged under the Marion standard, which requires a showing of actual prejudice and intentional delay. Under that test, we find defendant's claim that he was denied a speedy trial to be without merit. The defense nowhere alleges that the prosecutor intentionally delayed for the purpose of tactical advantage in seeking an indictment or information against the defendant. In addition, defendant certainly did not suffer the actual prejudice that Marion requires to be shown. He argues that delay in seeking information against him prevented him from gaining evidence that he was undergoing drug withdrawal in that the symptoms of such withdrawal disappear within five days from the time drug use stops. Yet, if we accept defendant's argument, we would be effectively imposing a five-day period from the commission of the offense by which the prosecutor must seek an indictment. Obviously, waiting five days from the time of the offense to seek an indictment does not constitute an unreasonable delay by prosecution. In addition, defendant had several opportunities during the time he was allegedly suffering withdrawal pains to request aid from medical personnel, but never sought relief. This conduct, atypical of the behavior one could expect from a drug addict withdrawing from drugs, coupled with the fact that none of the prison and medical personnel observed any withdrawal symptoms from defendant during this time, compels us to believe that his claims of prejudice are speculative at best. See, United States v. McGough, 510 F.2d 598 (5th Cir. 1975) (speculative claims of prejudice are insufficient to meet Marion test of pre-indictment delay). 14