United States Third Circuit

In defendant's challenge to his conviction for attempted homicide and related offenses arising from a fight at a bar, judgment of the district court concluding that there was no constitutional violation is reversed with instructions to dismiss the indictment and vacate the conviction as, weighing the four Barker factors anew, defendant's right to a speedy trial was violated when forty-five months elapsed between his indictment and trial. Prejudice will be presumed (rebuttably) when there is a forty-five-month delay in bringing a defendant to trial, even when it could be argued that only thirty-five months of that delay is attributable to the government.

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/14/2009
• Published 12/14/2009

Judges

• Before RENDELL and AMBRO, Circuit Judges, and McVERRY, District Judge.

Court

• United States Third Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Robert Epstein, Esq. [Argued] Brett G. Sweitzer, Esq., Defender Association of Philadelphia Federal Court Division, West Philadelphia, PA, for Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Bernadette A. McKeon, Esq. [Argued] Mark S. Miller, Esq., Office of the United States Attorney Philadelphia, PA, for Appellee.