Court Opinion

ID: 9564300
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:57:39.730152+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:20.452257
License: Public Domain

Deen, Presiding Judge,
dissenting on rehearing.
This case, involving a 13-month delay, is controlled by Glenn v. State, 144 Ga. App. 557 (241 SE2d 447) (1978), in which a 15-month delay was held not to be error.
Justice Douglas, quoted in the majority opinion projects the better rule or view in his timely observation *44on an old case that it would be unjust and monstrous to put one on trial for bestiality after a two-year delay, as it would have been better to accuse him the next day. Yet we cannot say the trial judge abused his discretion under the facts of this case as to delays relating to identification and crime lab results. We do not know whether these latter two difficulties existed in the bestiality arrest and trial as it related to the alleged date of act charged. Society has a compelling interest in ferreting out crime, and the trial court should have a discretion within the facts of each case as to drawing the lines of demarcation. United States v. Lovasco, 431 U. S. 783 (97 SC 2044, 52 LE2d 752) (1977).
I am authorized to state that Judge McMurray joins in the result of this dissent only.