Speedy Trial

  Source and Rationale .--The right to a speedy trial may be derived from a provision of Magna Carta and it was a right so interpreted by Coke. 12 Much the same language was incorporated into the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776 13 and from there into the Sixth Amendment. Unlike other provisions of the Amendment, this guarantee can be attributable to reasons which have to do with the rights of and infliction of harms to both defendants and society. The provision is ''an important safeguard to prevent undue and oppressive incarceration prior to trial, to minimize anxiety and concern accompanying public accusation and to limit the possibility that long delay will impair the ability of an accused to defend himself.'' 14 The passage of time alone may lead to the loss of witnesses through death or other reasons and the blurring of memories of available witnesses. But on the other hand, ''there is a societal interest in providing a speedy trial which exists separate from and at times in opposition to the interests of the accused.'' Persons in jail must be supported at considerable public expense and often families must be assisted as well. Persons free in the community may commit other crimes, may be tempted over a lengthening period of time to ''jump'' bail, and may be able to use the backlog of cases to engage in plea bargaining for charges or sentences which do not give society justice. And delay often retards the deterrent and rehabilitative effects of the criminal law. 15  

Footnotes

[Footnote 12] ''We will sell to no man, we will not deny or defer to any man either justice or right.'' Ch. 40 of the 1215 Magna Carta, a portion of ch. 29 of the 1225 reissue. Klopfer v. North Carolina, 386 U.S. 213, 223 -24 (1967).

[Footnote 13] 7 F. Thorpe, The Federal and State Constitutions, H. Doc. No. 357, 59th Congress, 2d Sess. 8, 3813 (1909).

[Footnote 14] United States v. Ewell, 383 U.S. 116, 120 (1966). See also Klopfer v. North Carolina, 386 U.S. 213, 221 -22 (1967); Smith v. Hooey, 393 U.S. 374, 377 -379 (1969); Dickey v. Florida, 389 U.S. 30, 37 -38 (1970).

[Footnote 15] Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514, 519 (1972); Dickey v. Florida, 398 U.S. 30, 42 (1970) (Justice Brennan concurring). Congress by the Speedy Trial Act of 1974, Pub. L. No. 93-619, 88 Stat. 2076, 18 U.S.C. Sec. Sec. 3161-74, has codified the law with respect to the right, intending ''to give effect to the sixth amendment right to a speedy trial.'' S. Rep. No. 1021, 93d Congress, 2d Sess. 1 (1974).

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Sixth Amendment Text