Opinion ID: 187226
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Effect of Adding Co-Defendant Cassandra Trent

Text: On October 29, 2004, more than four months after Smith was indicted, a superseding indictment added a new codefendant, Cassandra Trent, and charged her with removal of property to prevent seizure. 18 U.S.C. § 2232(a). The government argues that Smith's speedy trial clock should be reset so that it reflects the speedy trial clock of the newly added codefendant. United States v. Lightfoot, 483 F.3d 876, 885-86 (8th Cir.2007). Smith points to the text of the Speedy Trial Act, which states only that a reasonable period of delay shall be excluded, 18 U.S.C. § 3161(h)(7), and argues that resetting Smith's clock in this case would be unreasonable. The Supreme Court has stated that [a]ll defendants who are joined for trial generally fall within the speedy trial computation of the latest codefendant, Henderson, 476 U.S. at 323 n. 2, 106 S.Ct. 1871, and we see no reason to depart from that practice here, see also United States v. Casas, 425 F.3d 23, 31 (1st Cir.2005) (The Supreme Court has interpreted [18 U.S.C. § 3161(h)(7)] to mean that the clock does not, in effect, begin to run until the date of the most recent defendant's initial appearance before the court.). Smith tries to show that where a superseding indictment does not change the charges against the defendant it should have no effect on the speedy trial clock, but the cases Smith cites either did not involve the addition of a new co-defendant, United States v. Marshall, 935 F.2d 1298, 1302 (D.C.Cir.1991), or have been expressly disavowed, United States v. Santiago-Becerril, 130 F.3d 11, 19 (1st Cir.1997) (cited by Smith for the proposition that the addition of a new co-defendant does not reset the original defendant's speedy trial clock where the superseding indictment was based on the original charges); abrogated by United States v. Barnes, 251 F.3d 251, 258 (1st Cir.2001) (explaining that, [r]ead literally, the language from Santiago-Becerril would contradict the Supreme Court's decision in Henderson (and, thus, would not command our allegiance)). Smith also argues that we should apply criteria that other circuits have used to determine whether the excludable delay occasioned by the addition of a new codefendant is reasonable. But the cases he cites concerned delay attendant to motions made by a co-defendant, not to the delay excluded by resetting the speedy trial clock to reflect the addition of a new defendant. See United States v. Stephens, 489 F.3d 647, 653-55 (5th Cir.2007); United States v. Vogl, 374 F.3d 976, 983-84 (10th Cir.2004). The Speedy Trial Act excludes delay attributable to resetting a defendant's speedy trial clock upon the addition of a co-defendant so that the government will not be forced to choose between prosecuting defendants separately and violating the Speedy Trial Act. See, e.g., United States v. Sutton, 801 F.2d 1346, 1365 (D.C.Cir. 1986). In view of this important policy, and the Supreme Court's straightforward application of this provision in Henderson, 476 U.S. at 323 n. 2, 106 S.Ct. 1871, we hold that the addition of co-defendant Trent on October 29, 2004 restarted Smith's speedy trial clock.