Court Opinion

ID: 9631298
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 10:33:50.763167+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:29:00.346374
License: Public Domain

Waoheoteld, J.
(dissenting). The appellant, a convicted felon, is presently serving in State Prison a term of 11 to 18 years imposed in the Passaic County Court. He complains of his inability to obtain trial on other indictments pending against him returned in Hudson County, where there are eight bills of indictment, six for robbery and two for assault with intent to rob. All these indictments were returned in the December term, 1945.
The indictments were listed for pleading in Hudson County in April, 1946, and the defendant failed to respond and plead *95thereto. Admittedly he could not do so, being incarcerated at the time in Passaic County. A detainer was filed against him and he was subsequently sentenced an another indictment to the term he is now serving. On May 22, 1946, he was transferred to the State Prison.
Thereafter, on June 6, 1946, he inquired by letter of the Prosecutor of Hudson County about the pending indictments and was advised on June 20 that, having admitted his guilt of the other crimes charged, his appearance in court could be arranged if he desired to enter a plea of guilty and the matters disposed of. He refused to accept the invitation to plead guilty, alleging his innocence.
The appellant asserts he wrote a letter demanding he be brought on for trial. The prosecutor denies such a letter was received as his files fail to reveal it. Nevertheless, on March 3, 1951, the prisoner wrote another letter in which he said:
“This is my third letter to your office, since 1946, requesting that you bring me to trial on the detainers that your office lodged against me here at the prison. I wish to bring to your attention, that these detainers are almost six years old, and I want to be released from any further anxiety and, harassment on said detainers.
Therefore, Sir, I respectfully request that I be brought to Court, so that I could face these detainers, or that you nolle pros. them.
His communication arid demands were ignored. He then made a motion to set a date for trial. No action was taken on this motion and the prisoner therefore, on May 21, moved to dimiss the indictments for failure to prosecute. Two days later it was denied, the reason assigned being the defendant had failed to plead to the indictment. Obviously he could not do so as he was incarcerated and incapable of making an appearance without the authorities taking the necessary action to accomplish it.
The court’s refusal to dismiss the indictments is the subject of this appeal, counsel for the purpose having been assigned.
*96The prisoner asserts he was denied his constitutional rights to a speedy trial after having made demands therefor and contends the mere fact that he was serving time on another sentence does not nullify the constitutional provisions.
The right to a speedy trial was recognized at the common law from the time of the Magna Carta, called the foundation of personal and political liberty of English-speaking people, and-is presently specifically provided for in our own Constitution. The Constitution of 1947, Article I, par. 10, provides:
“In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall have the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury * *
See section 52 of the Habeas Corpus Act, Revision of 1877, now R. S. 2 :188-1; section 65 of the Criminal Procedure Act, Revision of 1877, now R. S. 2 :190-1.
In Patterson v. State, 50 N. J. L. 421 (E. & A. 1888), the court said:
“With both of these statutes before it, the constitutional convention of 1844 ingrafted in the organic law the provision that in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall have the right to a speedy trial, and thus enjoined, not only upon the courts, but also upon the legislature itself, the duty of preserving this time-honored principle in the exercise of penal authority.”
The majority cites Apgar v. Woolston, 43 N. J. L. 57 (Sup. Ct. 1881), which reaches the not very startling result that “the court * * * has the power, in case the indictment has not been prosecuted with due diligence * * * to fix a day for trial.” The opinion likewise cites State v. Hickling, 45 N. J. L. 152 (Sup. Ct. 1883), which holds “* * * the prosecutor without the consent or under the advise of the court” cannot discharge indictments. The difficulty there encountered seems to be that the court could find no instance “where the common law prevails, in which the peremptory power of the court has been exerted upon the state’s representative in thus discharging an indictment in whole or in part.”
*97I quarrel with neither result. I admit the court has the power “to fix a day for trial” and think it elementary without need of authority. In the case sub judice the prisoner was not asking the court to exert its “peremptory power * * * upon the state’s representative.” He is only asking the use of the court’s inherent power to enforce his constitutionally guaranteed rights.
I cannot subscribe to the majority’s conclusion that these two cases stand for “the proposition that under common law as it existed in'this State the court is without power to dismiss an indictment at the instance of a party * * In the Hickling case, supra, the last paragraph, quoted in the majority opinion, said: “Against unreasonable delay, or the continuance of oppressive prosecutions, defendants can, through methods indicated in Apgar v. Woolston, find protection in indisputable power of the court.” (Italics added.)
I am in accord that there is indisputable power in the courts either under the old system or new to make effective the constitutional guarantees specifically recited in every Constitution we ever had, including our last one of 1947. The right to a speedy trial is one of the fundamental safeguards of the individual against the overreaching of the power of the State and is grounded in the taproots of the common law.
It is an odd kind of justice that denies the power and duty of the courts to enforce vigorously so basic a right. The majority opinion proclaims the preciousness of the right of speedy trial and then proceeds to deny it.
The appellant contends his constitutional right to a speedy trial is an absolute one not subject to the discretion of the court, citing State v. Keefe, 17 Wyo. 227, 98 Pac. 122 (1908), and may be availed of even though he is already incarcerated.
“A sovereign may not deny an accused person a speedy trial even though he is incarcerated in one of that sovereign’s penal institutions under a prior conviction and sentenced in a court of that sovereign.” Harris v. State, 71 A. 2d 36 (Ct. App. Md. 1950).
*98The burden of disposing of the indictments is upon the State and not upon the defendant. The failure to grant a trial although requested for a' period of six years is unreasonable and in violation of the defendant’s constitutional rights and guarantees.. It may be impossible for a prisoner by reason of his incarceration to comply with all of the provisions of our rules of procedure. If he has made known his desire for a speedy trial, the authorities are under a constitutional mandate to heed the request and to grant his demand.
The majority says: “There is no proof in the record that the defendant is prejudiced as a result of the delay.” When a trial is delayed for many years over the protest of the accused, prejudice can be presumed.
Here the prisoner not only requested a trial but made a motion to set a date for trial, upon which no action was taken. The trial court, under these circumstances, was not privileged to suspend the defendant’s constitutional guarantees.
I would vote to reverse the judgment and enter an order dismissing the indictments against him.
I am authorized to say that Mr. Chief Justice Vanderbilt joins in this dissent.
For affirmance — Justices IIeher, Oliphant, Burling, Jacobs and Brennan — 5.
For reversal — Chief Justice Vanderbilt and Justice Waciienpeld — 2.