Court Opinion

ID: 9522764
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 02:32:10.601278+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:03:53.783021
License: Public Domain

Burgess, J.,
¶ 69. concurring in Part I, and dissenting in Part II. Having joined in the Chief Justice’s dissent, I write separately to respond to a few points asserted by my other colleagues in their dissenting and concurring opinions. It is settled that delay by assigned defense counsel is not attributable to the state for purposes of claiming a speedy-trial violation under the federal constitution, Vermont v. Brillon, 556 U.S. _, _, 129 S. Ct. 1283, 1291 (2009), and the opposite holding of State v. Brillon, 2008 VT 35, ¶ 2, 183 Vt. 475, 955 A.2d 1108 [hereinafter Brillon /], which is reversed and in the past. Nevertheless, deep differences in that split opinion reemerge today in certain characterizations regarding whether the same case presents a speedy-trial violation under the state constitution. Given that facts assumed or arrived at by the majority in Brillon I were important enough to reiterate here, it is equally important to correct any misimpressions left by those recitations.
¶ 70. Assuming defendant acted in good faith without intending to sabotage efforts to secure him a trial in this case, nothing in the undisputed record supports a claim of denial of speedy trial under Chapter I, Article 10 of the Vermont Constitution. The record is that early on defendant was twice assigned counsel and scheduled for trial. It is undisputed that the trial court rejected defendant’s claims that counsel was unprepared or too overworked to proceed to trial, and those rulings are not challenged on appeal. It is uncontested that, rather than go to trial, defendant took steps to disqualify his first counsel and later, after failing to show his second counsel ineffective, disqualified his second counsel on the eve of trial by threatening him. It is undisputed that defendant then, after warnings by the trial court, expressly waived his right to speedy trial.
¶ 71. Having his speedy-trial right twice satisfied, defendant never demanded speedy trial thereafter. However, an earlier *481impression from Britton I that defendant repeatedly demanded trial is restated here by Justice Johnson, ante, ¶ 37, and is apparently shared by Justice Dooley, ante, ¶ 48. The undisputed record demonstrates the contrary. As in Britton I, the trial court’s findings and conclusion that defendant often sought dismissal, but never demanded speedy trial, despite the court’s explicit willingness to accommodate such a demand, remains unchallenged in the instant appeal.
¶ 72. To be sure, the same record shows there followed a fourteen-month delay when defendant was assigned ineffective counsel, or no counsel, due to conflict and contracting problems at the Defender General’s office. But even on the theory of state responsibility for public defender nonfeasance promoted by Justices Johnson and Dooley (rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court for federal speedy-trial purposes), such delay would still not be a violation of Vermont’s constitutional right to speedy trial -without necessary Barker findings as to length and cause of delay, assertion of right and prejudice. See Britton I, 2008 VT 35, ¶¶ 11-12 (confirming our adoption of the factors announced in Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514 (1972), for determining violation of speedy trial). Except for defendant’s choice not to go to trial in the first two instances, and his waiver, there would have been no delay. Assuming, as does Justice Johnson, an independent superseding delay afterwards, ante, ¶ 40, defendant failed to assert any demand for trial. Nothing in the record shows any actual prejudice resulting from delay. If prejudice is presumed, the state’s attorney was not afforded its due opportunity for rebuttal. See Doggett v. United States, 505 U.S. 647, 657-58 (1992) (holding that presumptive prejudice from extraordinary trial delay is not conclusive, but rebuttable). As in Britton I, the Barker criteria are not proven in defendant’s favor. Contrary to the view of Justice Johnson, there is no basis here to “reinstate our original opinion on independent state constitutional grounds.” Ante, ¶ 46.
¶ 73. I dissent and am authorized to state that Chief Justice Reiber joins in this dissent.