Sherman, Texas Criminal Trial Attorney: The Right to A Speedy Trial in Texas (Part 3)

The reasons for the delay of a trial are important under the second prong, and the State will be required to put forward their reasons at a dismissal hearing.  Right now, blood and drug results from the State laboratory are taking six months or so to process.   A person sitting in jail on a misdemeanor is heavily prejudiced by waiting that long on a chemical result.   A person awaiting felony trial is not as prejudiced per the caselaw, but after nine months or so prejudice can sometimes be shown.   A lawyer should consider filing a speedy trial motion in any trial that will be lengthily delayed by chemical testing, DNA testing or other factors under the State’s control.

Timely assertion of the right is important as the third factor of the Barker analysis. The Court of Criminal Appeals recognized this in Zamorano when the Court categorized the Defendant’s request for speedy trial as “tardy” but found that the “defendant’s assertion of the right” prong should not weigh against the defendant because it was not a case where the Defendant never asked for a hearing and noted “nothing indicated an affirmative desire for delay” on the part of the defendant. Zamorano, 84 S.W.3d at 652.   There are often reasons that a defendant would want a delay in trial proceedings, especially in the case of a potentially large sentence.   An attorney filing continuances or a defendant continually signing pass slips can be something the Court will look at.  The Dallas Court in Reed stated that a motion to dismiss gets lesser weight than an assertion of the right/motion for speedy hearing in a probation revocation case.

Zamorano also illustrates that very little prejudice need be shown by the Defendant in cases involving considerable delay under the fourth prong of the Barker analysis. In fact, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals found that missing 11 days of work and having to regularly check in with a bail bond company was sufficient prejudice in light of the delay. Zamorano, 84 S.W.3d at 654.