State v. Space
Citation | 312 Neb. 456,980 N.W.2d 1 |
Decision Date | 16 September 2022 |
Docket Number | S-21-837,S-21-837. |
Court | Supreme Court of Nebraska |
Parties | STATE of Nebraska, appellant, v. Tracy L. SPACE, appellee. |
1. Judgments: Speedy Trial: Appeal and Error. Generally, a trial court's determination as to whether charges should be dismissed on speedy trial grounds is a factual question which will be affirmed on appeal unless clearly erroneous.
2. Statutes: Appeal and Error. Statutory interpretation presents a question of law, for which an appellate court has an obligation to reach an independent conclusion irrespective of the decision made by the court below.
3. Speedy Trial. Under Nebraska's speedy trial statutes, criminal defendants must be brought to trial by a 6-month deadline, but certain periods of delay are excluded and thus can extend the deadline.
4. __. The primary burden is on the State to bring an accused person to trial within the time provided by law.
5. __ . If a defendant is not brought to trial by the 6-month speedy trial deadline, as extended by any excluded periods, he or she is entitled to absolute discharge from the offense charged and for any other offense required by law to be joined with that offense.
6. Speedy Trial: Proof. When a motion for absolute discharge is filed, the State bears the burden to show, by the greater weight of the evidence, that one or more of the excluded time periods under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-1207(4) (Reissue 2016) are applicable.
7. Speedy Trial. To calculate the time for speedy trial purposes, a court must exclude the day the complaint was filed, count forward 6 months, back up 1 day and then add any time excluded under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-1207(4) (Reissue 2016) to determine the last day the defendant can be tried.
8 Statutes. Statutory interpretation begins with the text, and the text is to be given its plain and ordinary meaning. A court will not read meaning into a statute that is not warranted by the legislative language or read anything plain, direct, or unambiguous out of a statute.
9. Statutes: Intent. When interpreting a statute, a court must give effect, if possible, to all the several parts of a statute and no sentence, clause, or word should be rejected as meaningless or superfluous if it can be avoided.
10. Words and Phrases. A legal term of art is a word or phrase having a specific, precise meaning in a given specialty apart from its general meaning in ordinary contexts.
11. Statutes: Words and Phrases. When legal terms of art are used in statutes, they are to be construed according to their term of art meaning.
12. Speedy Trial: Words and Phrases. The term "continuance," as used in Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-1207(4)(b) (Reissue 2016), refers to the circumstance where a court proceeding set for one date is postponed to a future date.
13. Speedy Trial. The text of Neb. Rev. Stat § 29-1207(4)(b) (Reissue 2016) plainly requires that a "continuance" must be granted at the request or with the consent of the defendant or his or her counsel, before the resulting period of delay is excludable.
14. Criminal Law: Appeal and Error. Under the invited error doctrine, a defendant in a criminal case may not take advantage of an alleged error which the defendant invited the trial court to commit.
15. Criminal Law: Speedy Trial: Waiver. A criminal defendant's failure to demand a trial within the 6-month statutory speedy trial period, or to object to a trial date set beyond such period, does not constitute a waiver of his or her speedy trial rights.
Appeal from the District Court for Buffalo County: Ryan C. Carson, Judge. Exception overruled.
Shawn R. Eatherton, Buffalo County Attorney, and Kari R. Fisk for appellant.
Lydia Davis, Buffalo County Public Defender, for appellee.
Heavican, C.J., Miller-Lerman, Cassel, Stacy, Funke, Papik, and Freudenberg, JJ.
During a scheduling hearing in a felony criminal case, the district court proposed a trial date and asked defense counsel, "does that work?" to which counsel replied, "Yes, thank you." The court then scheduled trial for that date. No one mentioned speedy trial during the scheduling hearing, but it is undisputed that the proposed trial date was more than 6 months after the date the information was filed.
Shortly before the scheduled trial date, the defendant moved for absolute discharge, asserting she had not been brought to trial before the running of the 6-month speedy trial period under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-1207 (Reissue 2016). The district court granted absolute discharge, and the State filed this exception proceeding.
The State's primary argument is that by agreeing to an initial trial date that was outside the 6-month statutory speedy trial period, the defendant consented to an excludable "period of delay resulting from a continuance granted" within the meaning of § 29-1207(4)(b). Alternatively, the State argues the defendant "invit[ed] the Court to commit error in scheduling"[1]and should not have been allowed to rely on such error to obtain absolute discharge. Finding no merit to the State's arguments, we overrule the exception.
In a two-count information filed on March 5, 2021, Tracy L. Space was charged with aggravated driving under the influence third offense (a Class IIIA felony), and refusal to submit to a preliminary breath test (a Class V misdemeanor). On March 9, Space filed a motion for discovery, which the court granted in an order entered the following day.
On March 25, 2021, the court entered a progression order setting arraignment for May 24, and a "final plea hearing" for July 22. The progression order stated that "[a]t the conclusion of the final plea hearing . . . the Court will schedule trial." Before the scheduled arraignment on May 24, Space filed a written waiver of arraignment and entered a plea of not guilty.
All parties appeared for the final plea hearing on July 22, 2021, during which the following exchange took place:
The issue of speedy trial was not raised or discussed when the trial date was selected, nor at any other point during the final plea hearing. After the hearing, the court entered an order, styled as a journal entry, memorializing the dates set for the final status hearing and trial.
On September 13, 2021, Space filed a motion for absolute discharge, asserting a violation of both her statutory and constitutional speedy trial rights. At the hearing on Space's motion, the court took judicial notice of the information, the progression order, Space's written not guilty plea, the journal entry memorializing the trial date, and the remainder of the court file. The State offered a transcript of the July 22 hearing into evidence, which the court received without objection.
The court then gave counsel an opportunity to present argument, beginning with the defense. Defense counsel argued that Space was entitled to absolute discharge because the State failed to bring her to trial within 6 months of the date the information was filed and because she had not waived her right to a speedy trial. Anticipating the State's argument, defense counsel urged:
The State urged the court to overrule the motion for discharge, reasoning that Space's acceptance of the September 20, 2021, trial date rendered the period between the July 22 hearing and September 20 excludable under § 29-1207(4)(b). The State argued:
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