State v. Steadham, 56841

• Decision Date: 25 June 1975
• Docket Number: No. 56841,56841
• Citation: 231 N.W.2d 29
• Parties: STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Raymond Lee STEADHAM, Appellant.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

Page 29

231 N.W.2d 29

STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Raymond Lee STEADHAM, Appellant.

No. 56841.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

June 25, 1975.

John C. Wellman, Des Moines, for appellant.

Richard C. Turner, Atty. Genm., Raymond W. Sullins, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Terry Wright, Asst. Polk County Atty., for appellee.

Submitted to MOORE, C.J., and MASON, REES, HARRIS and McCORMICK, JJ.

REES, Justice.

Claiming trial court erred in denying his motion to dismiss for lack of speedy trial, defendant appeals from judgment entered on a jury verdict finding him guilty of arson. We affirm.

Defendant was charged with the crime of arson by a county attorney's information filed February 5, 1973. He filed a motion to dismiss the information for lack of speedy trial on August 28, 1973, asserting that more than 200 days had elapsed since the information was filed. The motion was denied two days later. Trial commenced on September 17, 1973 and ended in a mistrial when the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict.

A second trial commenced on October 8, 1973. Defendant renewed his motion to dismiss for lack of speedy trial at the close of the State's case but trial court again denied the motion. The jury subsequently returned a verdict finding defendant guilty of arson and on October 9 judgment was entered on that verdict.

The sole issue facing us on this appeal is whether trial court erred in denying defendant's motion to dismiss for lack of speedy trial.

I. No demand for speedy trial was made in the instant case. In State v. Gorham, 206 N.W.2d 908 (Iowa 1973), we held an accused need no longer demand speedy trial in order to avail himself of the 60-day speedy trial requirement set out in § 795.2, The Code. We restricted application of that holding to '(1) the case at bar, (2) cases now pending on appeal where defendant has, in trial court, timely and properly challenged the demand-waiver rule, and (3) cases in which an indictment is returned or county attorney's information is filed after the filing of this opinion.' (April 25, 1973). Gorham, supra at 913.

The charge against defendant was filed before we filed our opinion in Gorham and his case fails to fall within either of the two remaining categories to which application of that decision was limited. He therefore cannot rely on § 795.2, The Code. Defendant appears to recognize as much and concedes the 60-day time period governing the statutory right to speedy trial under § 795.2, The Code, was never triggered because he did not make a demand, but argues trial court improperly failed to apply constitutional speedy trial standards enunciated in Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514, 92 S.Ct. 2182, 33 L.Ed.2d 101, when passing on this motion to dismiss.

II. It is clear from the record that trial court denied defendant's motion to dismiss for lack of speedy trial solely on the basis of the demand-waiver rule. We have, in cases not subject to our holding in Gorham, applied both the demand-waiver rule to speedy trial claims under § 795.2, The Code, and the Barker v. Wingo standards to claims the constitutional right to speedy trial guaranteed by amendments 6 and 14 to the United States Constitution and Article I, § 10 of the Iowa Constitution had been denied. See Boyle v. Critelli, 230 N.W.2d 495 (Iowa 1975); State v. Taylor, 211 N.W.2d 264, 266 (Iowa 1973); and State v. Kimball, 203 N.W.2d 296 (Iowa 1972). Defendant correctly asserts trial court should have applied the Barker v. Wingo standards in the instant case before passing on his motion to dismiss for lack of speedy trial. We are not persuaded, however, that application of those standards necessitates a result different from that reached below.

III. In Barker v. Wingo, the Supreme Court re-examined the demand-waiver rule and found that the right to speedy trial could not be quantified into a fixed time period or waived merely by failure to make a demand. The court held that a balancing test should be applied to each case, with consideration given the following factors: 1) length of delay; 2)...