U.S. v. Stafford

• Decision Date: 16 February 1983
• Docket Number: 81-5668,Nos. 81-5482,s. 81-5482
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Gregory Donnell STAFFORD, Defendant-Appellee. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. George GRAHAM, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 1368

697 F.2d 1368

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Gregory Donnell STAFFORD, Defendant-Appellee.

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. George GRAHAM, Defendant-Appellee.

Nos. 81-5482, 81-5668.

United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit.

Feb. 16, 1983.

Patty Markamp Stemler, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., for plaintiff-appellant.

Charles L. Jaffee (court appointed), Hollywood, Fla., for defendant-appellee in No. 81-5482.

Robert A. Huth, Jr., Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for defendant-appellee in No. 81-5668.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Before JOHNSON and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges, and HUNTER ^*, District Judge.

JOHNSON, Circuit Judge:

The government brings these appeals from separate decisions of the district court dismissing the indictments of Gregory Stafford and George Graham under the Speedy Trial Act, 18 U.S.C.A. Sec. 3161 et seq. ¹ The district judge dismissed Stafford's indictment on April 17, 1981, 179 days after his arraignment, and dismissed Graham's indictment on June 23, 1981, 251 days after Graham's arraignment. The government argues on appeal that the district court misapplied the Speedy Trial Act and that no violation occurred in the case of either defendant. We agree and reverse both dismissals.

The Speedy Trial Act requires that a defendant be tried within 70 days from the filing date of the information or indictment, or from the date the defendant first appeared before a judicial officer of the court, whichever occurs later. 18 U.S.C.A. Sec. 3161(c)(1). In calculating the 70 day period, Section 3161(h) of the Act excludes time during which certain proceedings involving the defendant or a codefendant are pending. Among these exclusions are three periods of time relevant to this appeal:

(h) The following periods of delay shall be excluded in computing the time within which an information or an indictment must be filed, or in computing the time within which the trial of any such offense must commence:

(1) Any period of delay resulting from other proceedings concerning the defendant, including but not limited to--

* * *

(F) delay resulting from any pretrial motion, from the filing of the motion through the conclusion of the hearing on, or other prompt disposition of, such motion;

* * *

(J) delay reasonably attributable to any period, not to exceed thirty days, during which any proceeding concerning the defendant is actually under advisement by the court.

* * *

(7) A reasonable period of delay when the defendant is joined for trial with a codefendant as to whom the time for trial has not run and no motion for severance has been granted.

The Southern District of Florida's District Plan, adopted pursuant to 18 U.S.C.A. Sec. 3165(e)(3), expressly incorporates these exclusions.

Following their arraignments, Graham's on October 15, 1980, and Stafford's on October 20, 1980, appellees filed a number of pretrial motions over the course of the next several months. On October 22, 1980, Graham filed seven discovery motions ² that the court disposed of, with one exception, on January 25, 1981. On December 15, 1980, Graham filed a motion to reduce bond. The trial court granted the motion on December 29, 1980. On January 9, 1981, Stafford filed a motion to dismiss on Speedy Trial Act grounds. Graham filed a similar motion on January 26, 1981. The record reflects that on April 16, 1981, a magistrate held a hearing to consider both of these dismissal motions along with a March 31 motion by Stafford for release from custody under 18 U.S.C.A. Sec. 3164(b). At the hearing, which only Stafford attended, ³ the magistrate recommended the release of Stafford but deferred to the district court for a ruling on his motion to dismiss. The magistrate took no action as to Graham. On April 17, 1981, the district court granted Stafford's dismissal motion. The court rejected the government's argument that appellees' pretrial motions created excludable time under Section 3161(h) because none of the motions "caused any delay in the trial of this cause." The court stated:

The Government contends that any pretrial motion automatically creates excludable time. Section 3161(h)(1)(F) states:

The following period of time shall be excluded...

"delay resulting from any pretrial motion, from the filing of the motion through the conclusion of the hearing on, or other prompt disposition of such motion;"

The Court finds that none of the pretrial motions filed and previously ruled on caused any delay in the trial of this cause. Further, as to the two pending motions (motion to dismiss and motion to suppress) the Court stated at calendar call that these would be ruled on just prior to commencement of the trial, whenever that is. These motions caused no delay either. There being no excludable time and more than 70 days passing from first appearance without trial commencing, dismissal of the indictment is mandated via 3162[ (a) ](2).

On June 23, 1981, the district court entered an order dismissing Graham's indictment on the same grounds.

The government argues that the district court erred as a matter of law in ruling that, in order to create excludable time under Section 3161(h)(1)(F), a motion must cause actual delay in the commencement date of the trial. Although the trial court and appellees have correctly pointed out that that subsection reads "delay resulting from," the beginning of Section 3161(h) states that "[t]he following periods of delay shall be excluded ...." The latter phrase clearly indicates that each period listed in Section 3161(h) automatically is a period of delay. Moreover, a contrary reading would present extremely difficult practical questions of whether a particular motion did or did not actually delay the commencement of a trial. The virtual impossibility of making such a determination and the resulting uncertainty for defendants as to their Speedy Trial status require the conclusion that Congress could not have intended the statute to be read as appellees suggest. The legislative history of the Act supports our conclusion. See e.g., S.Rep. No. 96-212, 96th Cong., 1st Sess. 33 (1979) (the Act provides for "automatic application of exclusions"); id. at 26 (Sec. 3161(h)(1)(F) provides for automatic exclusions). Finally, appellees cite no Speedy Trial case interpreting the Act as requiring a factual determination of whether the trial was delayed; our review of the cases reveals that courts seem to have concluded that Section 3161 automatically excludes time. See e.g., United States v. Bufalino, 683 F.2d 639 (2d Cir.1982); United States v. Jodoin, 672 F.2d 232 (1st Cir.1982); United States v. Raineri, 670 F.2d 702, 707-08 (7th Cir.1982), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 103 S.Ct. 446, 74 L.Ed.2d ---- (1982); United States v. Nance, 666 F.2d 353, 355 (9th Cir.1981), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 102 S.Ct. 1776, 72 L.Ed.2d 179 (1982); Furlow v. United States, 644 F.2d 764, 768 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 871, 102 S.Ct. 340, 70 L.Ed.2d 175 (1981); United States v. Molt, 631 F.2d 258, 261-62 (3d Cir.1980); United States v. Brim, 630 F.2d 1307, 1311-12 (8th Cir.1980), cert. denied, 452 U.S. 966, 101 S.Ct. 3121, 69 L.Ed.2d 980 (1981). In Brim, the Eighth Circuit, after considering the same arguments presented by the parties in this appeal, stated:

The appellant argues that ordinary pretrial motions for discovery, disclosure of alibi witnesses, and the like do not give rise to excludable periods unless delay of the trial actually is caused by the filing of the motions. The government contends, on the other hand, that the statute provides for automatic exclusion of the time when such motions are pending.

The district court considered the theories of each side and concluded that the Act intended automatic exclusion. This interpretation is consistent with the language of the Act, as amended, and with the apparent purpose of the [1979] amendment.

Id. at 1312. We agree with this reasoning and conclude that the trial court in this case erred in deciding that the exclusions are not automatic.

Our holding that Section 3161(h) creates automatic exclusions does not end our inquiry as to whether the Speedy Trial Act was violated in this case. Still before us is the question whether the October 22 motions, the December 15 motion, and the January dismissal motions created enough excludable time to reduce the number of days from arraignment to dismissal to under 70. In order to conduct the necessary calculations, we first must address three threshold issues disputed by the parties concerning the method by which the exclusions are calculated. The first issue is whether a motion filed by one defendant creates excludable time for his codefendant. The second is whether a motion to dismiss under the Speedy Trial Act triggers the exclusion provision contained in Section 3161(h)(1)(F). The third issue concerns the length of time excludable as a result of the filing of pretrial motions.

As to codefendants, Section 3161(h)(1) excludes "[a] reasonable period of delay when the defendant is joined for trial with a codefendant as to whom the time for trial has not run and no motion for severance has been granted." Congress enacted this provision recognizing that multidefendant trials are desirable because they promote efficiency in the disposition of trials. If the Act imposed rigid time limits without applying exclusions to codefendants, courts would be forced to "grant severances which would otherwise not be required." United States v. Varella, 692 F.2d 1352, 1359, (11th Cir.1982) (quoting legislative history of Speedy Trial Act). For this reason, the rule in this Circuit is that the delay caused by one defendant is excludable as to his codefendants. Id.; United States v. Davis, 679 F.2d 845, 849-50 (11th Cir.1982). This rule extends to delay caused by the filing of pretrial motions. Varella, 692 F.2d at 1358. See also United States...