Court Opinion

ID: 9681003
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:42:18.811887+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:31.810942
License: Public Domain

REYNOLDS, Chief Justice,
dissenting.
In my view, appellant John Davis III has brought before us an appellate record demonstrating a denial of the right to a speedy trial he enjoys under the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. I, therefore, respectfully dissent to, respectively, the overruling of his third ground of error and the affirmance of the judgment.
The record establishes without contradiction these chronological events:
July 5, 1975: the fire, which gave rise to the charge, and conviction, of appellant for the felony offense of arson;
July 10, 1975: a complaint, filed in the Amarillo, Texas, justice of the peace court, charged appellant with the felony offense of arson upon which an arrest warrant was issued;
August 28, 1975: Appellant moved from Amarillo to Missouri;
May 1, 1977: appellant arrested in Missouri for offense of attempted arson committed in that state; later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years confinement in Missouri penitentiary;
October 10,1978: appellant released from Missouri penitentiary;
January, 1979: appellant moved to Arlington, Texas, and worked under his true name;
July 25, 1979: appellant arrested in Arlington;
September 13, 1979: indictment returned charging appellant with the felony offense of arson, the offense being charged in the identical language of the 10 July 1975 complaint;
November 8, 1979: the State announced ready for trial;
November 9, 1979: the trial court heard and overruled appellant’s motion to dismiss; and
December 12, 1979: the trial began and resulted in appellant’s conviction for the crime of arson, the offense first charged against him by the 10 July 1975 complaint.
*540The first inquiry must be whether the delay of four years and five months, from the 10 July 1975 complaint to the 12 December 1979 trial, is a factor for consideration in appellant’s invocation of the Sixth Amendment provision that “[i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial... . ” The majority has held that it is not, reasoning, in brief, that under the Sixth Amendment a prosecution does not commence by the filing of a complaint, but only commences when one becomes an “accused” by either the issuance of a formal indictment or information or the arrest and holding of the defendant to answer a criminal charge. I disagree with both the holding and the rationale upon which it is founded.
United States v. Marion, 404 U.S. 307, 92 S.Ct. 455, 30 L.Ed.2d 468 (1971), teaches that “the Sixth Amendment speedy trial provision has no application until the putative defendant in some way becomes an ‘accused,’ ...” and that “the protection of the Amendment is activated only when a criminal prosecution has begun and extends only to those persons who have been “accused” in the course of that prosecution.” 404 U.S. at 313,92 S.Ct. at 459. Thereafter, the Court, having recognized that an arrest is a public act, i.e., a public accusation, and having commented on its consequences, said:
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.
Invocation of the speedy trial provision thus need not await indictment, information, or other formal charge. But we decline to extend the reach of the amendment to the period prior to arrest. Until this event occurs, a citizen suffers no restraints on his liberty and is not the subject of public accusations: ....
404 U.S. at 320-21, 92 S.Ct. at 463-64. It is with reference to parts of this language that the majority states they do not read Marion as supportive of the proposition that, in effect, the- filing of a complaint will suffice to trigger the Sixth Amendment’s speedy trial provision. But Marion is not, in my appraisal, so restrictive, for the Court further explains in 404 U.S. at 325, 92 S.Ct. at 466 that
In the case before us, neither appellee was arrested, charged, or otherwise subjected to formal restraint prior to indictment. It was this event [the indictment], therefore, that transformed the appellees into “accused” defendants who are subject to the speedy trial protections of the Sixth Amendment.
Given all the language of Marion, I read it as teaching that the protection of the Sixth Amendment speedy trial provision is activated when a person first becomes publicly accused of a crime, the prosecution for which begins either by the filing of an official charging instrument, which historically includes a complaint, or by an arrest. Otherwise, the Court used useless language in equating “other formal charge” and “charged” with indictment and information and coupling arrest with “public accusations,” all of which, I submit, illustrate when “the putative defendant” in some way becomes an “accused.”
Moreover, it seems to me that the language of Marion referred to by the majority is, when considered in its proper context, explanatory of the Court’s pronouncement that the Amendment’s protection “is activated only when a criminal prosecution has begun and extends only to those persons who have been ‘accused’ in the course of that prosecution.” 404 U.S. at 313, 92 S.Ct. at 459. Within the meaning of the explicit guarantees of the Sixth Amendment, a criminal prosecution has begun when the government initiates criminal proceedings, committing itself to prosecute. Kirby v. Illinois, 406 U.S. 682, 689-90, 92 S.Ct. 1877, 1882-83, 32 L.Ed.2d 411 (1972). And it has been held that within the meaning of Marion, a person becomes an “accused” when he is charged with an offense by a complaint, the filing of which marks the inception of the Sixth Amendment’s speedy trial guar*541antee. United States v. Terrack, 515 F.2d 558, 559 (9th Cir. 1975).
These same principles are expressed in Texas law and rightly so, for the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee to an accused of a right to a speedy trial is imposed upon the states by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. McKinney v. State, 491 S.W.2d 404, 407 (Tex.Cr.App.1973). Notwithstanding the majority’s citation of Texas constitutional and statutory provisions for the proposition that no person shall be finally tried and convicted of a felony except upon indictment by a grand jury, unless waived, none of those provisions undertake to say, and do not say, that the filing of a complaint accusing one of a felony offense with a justice of the peace is not the commencement of a prosecution. In fact, it has been held, long ago and recently, that the filing of a complaint accusing one of a felony offense with a justice of the peace is the initial step in the commencement of a prosecution under Texas law. Baskins v. State, 75 Tex.Cr.R. 537, 171 S.W. 723, 725 (1914); Ex parte Clear, 573 S.W.2d 224, 228 (Tex.Cr.App.1978).
Indeed, the very wording in Clear, paraphrased as to date and crime, exactly expresses the situation before us thusly: The complaint filed against appellant on 10 July 1975 was the initial step in a criminal action instituted to secure his conviction and punishment for the crime of arson. Id. So, the appellant became, within the meaning of Marion, an “accused” on 10 July 1975 when the complaint was filed, and the length of delay is measured from that date. Arivette v. State, 513 S.W.2d 857, 861 (Tex.Cr.App.1974).
The four years and five months delay is prima facie unreasonable and, in determining whether there was a denial of a speedy trial, the related factors of the reason for the delay, appellant’s assertion of his right to a speedy trial, and prejudice to him must be considered together with the relevant circumstances revealed in this record. Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514, 530-33, 92 S.Ct. 2182, 2192-93, 33 L.Ed.2d 101 (1972). Other than speculation which may arise from the recorded dates, the delay is unexplained evidentially.1 Indisputably, appellant did not request a speedy trial; yet, his silence could mean that he was unaware of the necessity for a demand.2 Id. 407 U.S. at 526 n. 25, 92 S.Ct. at 2190 n. 25.
In considering the factor of prejudice, we must adhere to the requirement that some prejudice to the accused resulting from the delay must be shown, although he does not necessarily have to show actual prejudice. Courtney v. State, 472 S.W.2d 151, 154 (Tex.Cr.App.1971). During some sixteen months of the four years and five months delay in this prosecution, appellant was confined in the Missouri penitentiary,3 and it is judicially acknowledged that incarceration in another jurisdiction can prejudice an accused in matters other than the impairment of his presenting a defense. Turner v. State, 545 S.W.2d 133, 138 (Tex.Cr.App.1976). More pertinent, though, is that the State’s successful prosecution depended upon eyewitness identification given four years and five months after the event. In United States v. Butler, 426 F.2d 1275, 1277 (1st Cir. 1970), the court thought that a delay from accusation to arraignment of nine months in a case “where the result turned on eyewitness identification which necessarily became less reliable with the passage of time, ... is *542overly long absent a legitimate reason therefor.” The delay here was six times as long. But more important, it was appellant’s testimony that because he could not recall the events, his whereabouts or what he was doing on 5 July 1975, he could not assist his attorney with those matters or witnesses thereto. One of the trial interests deserving protection by a speedy trial is limiting the possibility that the defense may be impaired. Barker v. Wingo, supra, 407 U.S. at 532, 92 S.Ct. at 2193.
With the showing of these circumstances, a presumption or prima facie case of prejudice arose. The State exerted no effort to prove that appellant suffered no serious prejudice beyond that which ensued from the ordinary and inevitable delay. Where, as here, the prima facie showing of prejudice has not been rebutted, the prosecution should be dismissed. Courtney v. State, supra, at 154.
Accordingly, and on balance, I would sustain appellant’s third ground of error, which would be dispositive of the appeal, reverse the judgment and order the prosecution dismissed. Because the majority has not done so, I respectfully dissent.

. Appellant states that the State knew or should have known of his whereabouts, at least from August, 1978, as shown by the “FBI wanted rap sheet” in the district attorney’s file; however, inasmuch as this document is not made an official part of the appellate record, no consideration can be given to the statement.

. Again, no consideration can be given appellant’s appellate statement that he was informed the charges had been dropped, for an objection to that testimony was sustained.

.Likewise, no consideration can be given to appellant’s reference to his testimony that he was informed of a hold order on him from Texas, nor to his appellate assertions that because of the hold order, he suffered anxiety and concern. The court excluded the testimony from consideration by sustaining hearsay objections.