Court Opinion

ID: 9592829
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:17:16.193812+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:15:31.462778
License: Public Domain

MACY, Justice,
specially concurring.
I agree with the result that the majority reaches regarding the speedy trial issue, but I disagree with the statement that the clear violation of W.R.Cr.P. 48 vitiates the need to consider the four-part constitutional test articulated in Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514, 92 S.Ct. 2182, 33 L.Ed.2d 101 (1972). I believe that the Barker analysis should no longer be utilized by this Court in deciding speedy trial issues regardless of whether W.R.Cr.P. 48 has been clearly violated. The United States Supreme Court expressly held that states can prescribe a reasonable, definable period of time in which trials must be held. Barker, 407 U.S. at 523, 92 S.Ct. 2182. We adopted W.R.Cr.P. 48 in accordance with that holding, intending that we would be allowed to abandon the laborious and subjective Barker analysis in favor of a clearer and more concise analysis. It is my opinion that W.R.Cr.P. 48 provides the exclusive framework by which we should analyze alleged speedy trial violations, and I disagree with the implication in the majority opinion that a Barker analysis should be conducted if W.R.Cr.P. 48 has not been clearly violated.
I thoroughly explained my position in Hall v. State, 911 P.2d 1364, 1371 (Wyo.1996) (Macy, J., specially concurring), and in Yung v. State, 906 P.2d 1028, 1037 (Wyo.1995) (Macy, J., specially concurring). Those specially concurring opinions continue to reflect my ideas on the matter.