Marquette University Law School Faculty Blog

Speedy Trial Act Does Not Require Articulation of Ends-of-Justice Findings at Time Continuance Granted

Post author:Michael M. O'Hear
Post published:May 21, 2012
Post category:Federal Criminal Law & Process Public Seventh Circuit

In general, the Speedy Trial Act requires federal criminal trials to commence within 70 days of the time a defendant is charged or makes an initial appearance (whichever occurs laters). However, the Act also permits continuances that do not count against the 70 days when a judge finds “that the ends of justice served by [a continuance] outweigh the best interest of the public and the defendant in a speedy trial.” 18 U.S.C. § 3161(h)(7)(A). These ends-of-justice findings must be made on the record, either orally or in writing, but the statute does not specify when they must be made.

In United States v. Zedner, 547 U.S. 489 (2006), the Supreme Court indicated that the “best practice” is for the judge to articulate his or her findings at the same time that a continuance is granted. But are lower courts actually required to adhere to this “best practice”?

Earlier today, in United States v. Wasson (No. 10-2577), the Seventh Circuit affirmed that express ends-of-justice findings may await the defendant’s motion to dismiss on speedy trial grounds.

Anti-Urban Politics

Post author:David R. Papke
Post published:May 21, 2012
Post category:Milwaukee Political Processes & Rhetoric Public

During the first decades of the twentieth century, Americans looked proudly upon their great cities, but then, in the post-World War II decades, Americans started to see their cities as a problem. Small-town Americans and especially suburbanites increasingly took cities to have a different culture, one with troubling “urban” attitudes, styles, and ways of life.

In conjunction with seeing themselves as normal, decent, and law-abiding, self-styled “mainstream” Americans used the city as a negative reference point. The scholar Gerald Frug argues that mainstream Americans built and fortified their own collective identities by deploring the city. “In the resulting, socially polarized metropolitan setting representations of cities as ‘landscapes of fear’ and their residents as inherently threatening flourished.”

In Wisconsin’s current recall election, some of the political advertisements incorporate these anti-urban sentiments, especially with regard to Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s largest city and most “urban” place. Milwaukee’s factory closings, unemployment figures, and high school graduation rates are underscored. And, as if he was responsible for deindustrialization and creation of a semi-permanent underclass, the Mayor is held responsible. Heaven forbid that the kind of people who live in and manage the city could take the reins of the state.

Walker Leads Barrett by Six Points in New Poll Results

Post author:Alan J. Borsuk
Post published:May 16, 2012
Post category:Marquette Law School Political Processes & Rhetoric Public

Gov. Scott Walker has opened a lead over Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett of six percentage points among likely voters in the June 5 recall election, according to results of the Marquette Law School Poll released Wednesday. The Republican incumbent was the choice of 50% of those in the poll, while the Democratic challenger was the choice of 44%.

In results released by the Law School two weeks ago, Walker held a one point edge over Barrett. But the new results are within the margin of error for the poll. Professor Charles Franklin, director of the poll, said in releasing the results that the race remains close enough that either candidate could win in the end.

Awareness of the candidates for lieutenant governor, Republican incumbent Rebecca Kleefisch and Democrat Mahlon Mitchell, is much lower than that for Walker and Barrett, but the results at this point are very similar, with Kleefisch ahead by six points. The June 5 ballot includes separate voting for governor and lieutenant governor.

Opinion in the presidential race in Wisconsin also has shifted toward the Republican candidate in recent weeks, the poll found. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama, the Democratic incumbent, were tied at 46% each among likely voters in the new round of the year-long Law School polling project. In results in January through April, Obama led Romney. In addition, results when people were asked if they had favorable or unfavorable opinions of the candidates improved for Romney and declined for Obama between the April round of polling and the new polling, which was conducted last week.

Complete results, including data on every question asked, can be found by clicking here.