Court Opinion

ID: 9666076
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 01:04:15.241829+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:23.386261
License: Public Domain

HEFFERMAN, J.
(concurring) I concur in the court’s mandate affirming the judgment and order appealed from. I agree that there was no denial of the constitutional right of speedy trial. I disagree, however, with the methodology utilized by the majority in making that determination.
In State v. Ziegenhagen, 73 Wis.2d 656, 245 N.W.2d 656, this court made clear that the balancing factors originally set forth in Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514 (1972), were not to be utilized unless the passage of time was presumptively prejudicial.
The period of time which triggers the presumption is unrelated to the factors utilized in the balancing test. A delay which on its face is inordinate or shocking to the court in terms of time elapsed before defendant is brought to trial, irrespective of the reason therefor, is in itself sufficient to compel the court to conclude that the delay was presumptively prejudicial.
Conversely, a court has no obligation to go into the reasons for delay if on the face of the record it appears that the delay, although unexplained, is not unreasonably long. Hence, the determination of whether a presumptively prejudicial delay has occurred has nothing to do with the reason for the delay. If the period of time *368elapsed is unreasonably long, the delay is presumptively prejudicial even though weighing of the Barker factors may result in the determination that the delay was excusable because, as here, it resulted from circumstances intrinsic to the case.
In the instant case, the majority finds the delay of twenty-two months necessitates an examination of the reasons for the delay. This is a finding of presumptive prejudice. Yet, after considering the reasons for the delay, it concludes that the delay is not presumptively prejudicial. If the delay of twenty-two months was not presumptively prejudicial, then there need have been no inquiry into the reason for the delay.
I have no quarrel with the substance of what the court does. In reality, it finds the delay of twenty-two months presumptively prejudicial. This triggered its inquiry into the first of the balancing factors — reason for the delay. It properly concludes that the principal reason for the delay, the incompetency of the defendant to stand trial, was intrinsic to the case itself. That finding rebuts the presumption of prejudice, and the court concludes that the delay was caused by circumstances that did not infringe upon the defendant’s constitutional right to a speedy trial. It was not obligated to proceed further with the balancing factors of Barker.
After going through that rationale, however, it is contrary to logic to then conclude that the delay was not presumptively prejudicial. What the court actually does is to find presumptive prejudice and then dispel it by the analysis of the facts. The presumption was rebutted, and it is contrary to any rational analysis for the court at that point to conclude that there was no presumption of prejudice. Were that true, no inquiry into the reasons for the delay would have been necessary or appropriate.
I am authorized to state that Justice Abrahamson joins in this concurrence.