Court Opinion

ID: 9704709
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 00:43:54.945198+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:04.590192
License: Public Domain

DeBRULER, Justice,
dissenting.
A premise of Ind.Crim.Rule 4(B)(1) is that where the trial court is open and available, and the defendant does not stall the case, seventy days is a reasonable period of time for the State to prepare for the trial of a criminal case and get it to trial. Another premise is that a trial within seventy days should be available to those held in jail, accused of crime, and who actually maintain a desire for such a quick trial for the full seventy day period as their knowledge of their circumstances grows.
Crim.Rule 4(B)(1) is silent with respect to the occurrence of a release of a defendant on bail or on his own recognizance, after having, while in jail, made a motion for a seventy day early trial The rule, on the other hand, is perfectly clear that being held in jail is a necessary condition to making such motion in the first instance, and that the seventy day period commences upon the proper filing of the motion, and concludes seventy days later, except in specifically stated cireumstances. An order of court that the defendant be released on his own recognizance or the actual release of the defendant on bail, during the running of the seventy day period, is not such an exceptional cireumstance, and should not be. In the usual case as in the case at bar, after the motion has been filed and the seventy day period has begun to run, by reason of the shortness of the seventy day period, the trial court and both parties will have expended much effort in preparing for the oncoming trial with full knowledge of its scheduling. It was not within the intendment of this rule that such values be lost because of the changed circumstances of the defendant's confinement. The values of this rule are best preserved by making its full acquittal-discharge remedy available to the class of all those who are in jail facing a criminal charge, and who, while in jail, file a motion for early trial of such charge, and who thereafter maintain a position consistent with that motion for seventy consecutive calendar days.