{"id":17314,"date":"2012-05-21T14:30:17","date_gmt":"2012-05-21T19:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=17314"},"modified":"2012-05-21T14:33:18","modified_gmt":"2012-05-21T19:33:18","slug":"speedy-trial-act-does-not-require-articulation-of-ends-of-justice-findings-at-time-of-continuance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2012\/05\/speedy-trial-act-does-not-require-articulation-of-ends-of-justice-findings-at-time-of-continuance\/","title":{"rendered":"Speedy Trial Act Does Not Require Articulation of Ends-of-Justice Findings at Time Continuance Granted"},"content":{"rendered":"

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 \u201cthat the ends of justice served by [a continuance] outweigh the best interest of the public and the defendant in a speedy trial.\u201d 18 U.S.C. \u00a7 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<\/em> they must be made.<\/p>\n

In United States v. Zedner<\/em>, 547 U.S. 489 (2006), the Supreme Court indicated that the \u201cbest practice\u201d 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\u00a0\u201cbest practice\u201d?<\/p>\n

Earlier today, in United States v. Wasson<\/em> <\/a>(No. 10-2577), the Seventh Circuit affirmed that express ends-of-justice findings may await the defendant\u2019s motion to dismiss on speedy trial grounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Charged in 2006, Wasson was not actually tried until 2009. The delays resulted from a series of continuances granted by the court based on various ends-of-justice considerations. Although Wasson either requested or supported each continuance, he moved to dismiss on speedy trial grounds before trial. The motion was denied, and he was convicted. On appeal, he renewed his speedy trial argument, focusing on two continuances for which the court had initially offered only cursory explanations. More developed explanations were later provided in response to Wasson\u2019s motion to dismiss.<\/p>\n

The Seventh Circuit held that Wasson was entitled to nothing more. The court did not go so far as to say that a post-motion explanation would always suffice. Rather, citing United States v. Napadow<\/em>, 596 F.3d 398 (7th Cir. 2010), the court relied on both the later explanation given to Wasson and the \u201dsequence of events\u201d leading up to the continuances. (15) More specifically, the full record of the hearings on the continuances \u201csatsifie[d the Seventh Circuit that the lower] court considered the appropriate factors\u201d under the Speedy Trial Act. (16)<\/p>\n

Because the Seventh Circuit was satisfied with the lower court\u2019s ends-of-justice findings, it did not need to reach the government\u2019s argument \u201cthat because Wasson either requested or agreed to each continuance he is estopped from challenging them on appeal.\u201d (19) The court nonetheless expressed some sympathy for the government\u2019s position and expressly rejected \u201cWasson\u2019s suggestion that estoppel would not apply here simply because he made a timely motion to dismiss under the Act.\u201d (19)<\/p>\n

Cross posted at Seventh Circuit Updates<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 \u201cthat the ends of justice served by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,122,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criminal-law-process","category-public","category-seventh-circuit","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}