Court Opinion

ID: 9544964
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:04:05.08398+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:13:49.592462
License: Public Domain

HOLOHAN, Chief Justice,
dissenting:
The court today reverses a murder conviction and orders the prosecution dismissed with prejudice because of a violation of the “speedy trial” rules. The court’s action is all the more distressing because the application of the time limits in this case does not appear to be required by the Criminal Rules.
The Rules of Criminal Procedure are intended to apply to criminal proceedings before all Arizona courts. See comment to Rule 1.1, Rules of Criminal Procedure, 17 A.R.S. With this principle in mind, it should follow that the time limits of Rule 8.2(d) concerning reversal of a judgment by an appellate court applies to action by an Arizona appellate court. In the case at issue, a retrial of appellant was ordered by a federal district court, which decision was affirmed by a federal appellate court. Under the circumstances of this case, the provisions of Rule 8.2(d) are not applicable.
Under federal habeas corpus proceedings, which is a collateral attack on a state court *310judgment, the federal courts devise the remedy to protect the constitutional rights of the prisoner. The supremacy clause of the United States Constitution makes the judgment of the federal courts binding on the state courts. Necessarily, the procedural rules of a state system may not interfere with or limit the action of a federal court. The application of Arizona’s “speedy trial” rules may not limit the power of the federal courts to fashion a remedy for the state prisoner.
The federal courts have applied their own time limits in federal habeas corpus proceedings, and the sanction or relief is the release of the state prisoner. The case at issue should have been governed by the conditions set down by the federal court, but this court, for the first time, declares that Rule 8.2(d) applies to federal proceedings. This case involves action by a federal appellate court; does Rule 8.2(d) also apply to similar action by a federal district court when there is no appeal of the ruling to a federal appellate court?
The mixing of federal and state procedures has succeeded in confusing an already chaotic condition in our criminal law. There is no need for such confusion. This court should leave the enforcement of the time limits within which retrial is to occur in collateral federal proceedings to the federal courts. Rule 8.2(d) should apply solely to proceedings within the state court system.