Eighth Circuit: United States v. Rene Johnson

 

The statute regulating time from indictment to trial cannot be tolled for general court congestion, even when the Judicial Conference has declared an emergency in that district.  Remand to decide whether dismissal is with prejudice.

Anxiety is insufficient prejudice upon which to base a Sixth Amendment speedy trial claim.

Concurrence:  Delay was due to counsel's last minute disclosures, not general congestion.

As there was no contemporaneous objection to the exclusion from statutory calculations, review should be for plain error.

(Not labelled a concurrence in judgment, but begins by explicitly agreeing with the relief and then setting forth different reasoning.)

United States  v.  Rene Johnson

Sixth Circuit: United States v. Clifton Satterwhite

As the statute requiring indictment within 30 days is followed by a provision mandating a speedy trial, and the latter clause establishes that the right in "this section" is waived if not asserted, that qualification can be imputed to the first clause.

An untimely indictment is therefore not a jurisdictional flaw, and a deft who waived all challenges to earlier proceedings is validly sentenced after receiving an indictment defective under the statute.

http://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/18a0118p-06.pdf