Court Opinion

ID: 9850813
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:03:16.612218+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:44.076762
License: Public Domain

MOON, Chief Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent because I believe that counsel’s suggestion of a date beyond the five month period in which the trial should have been commenced was tantamount to “concurrence of the accused or his counsel” in a motion by the Commonwealth to continue the case. The court announced that it would grant the Commonwealth’s motion. Counsel was aware of the date by which the case should have commenced. Even though defense counsel objected to a continuance, he then knowingly suggested that trial be set beyond the critical date. This in my opinion was an implied waiver of his client’s right to be tried within the five month period. See Norton v. Commonwealth, 19 Va.App. 97, 99, 448 S.E.2d 892, 893 (1994) (recognizing that a defendant may impliedly waive his right to be tried within the statutory period).
Although we have held that the accused has no duty to request that a trial date be set within the prescribed period in order to preserve his or her statutory right to a speedy trial, Baity v. Commonwealth, 16 Va.App. 497, 501, 431 S.E.2d 891, 893 (1993), and that an accused may “stand mute without waiving his rights so long as his actions [do] not constitute a concurrence in or necessitate a delay of the trial,” id., we have not held that counsel may knowingly propose a date that violates his client’s speedy trial right and then benefit because his client’s right has been violated. When counsel knowingly led the trial court into selecting a date beyond the statutory period, I believe that was tantamount to concurring in a continuance beyond the statutory period. Accordingly, I would affirm.