State v. Driver

Summarized by:

  • Court: Oregon Court of Appeals
  • Area(s) of Law: Criminal Procedure
  • Date Filed: 04-08-2015
  • Case #: A153813
  • Judge(s)/Court Below: Ortega, P.J. for the Court; DeVore, J.; & Garrett, J..

It is a violation of the right of a criminal defendant to have a speedy trial where the State itself delayed a trial for twenty months by not providing discovery.

Defendant was arrested for DUII under ORS 813.101. After his arrest, and in preparation for trial, the state delayed the trial for 26.5 months. This delay was a result of the State continuously stalling on providing discovery to the defendant. Pursuant to former ORS 135.747 (2011) (repealed, 2013), Defendant moved for the trial to be dismissed. The trial court denied and the Defendant was convicted. On appeal, Defendant assigns error to the trial court for refusing to dismiss the case where the long delay was attributable to the State. The Court held that the longer any delay is, the shorter any unjustified portion may be. Here, the Court found that twenty of the months of the 26.5 delay was unjustified and that it was attributable to the State. Therefore, the Defendant's motion should have been granted. Reversed and remanded for entry of dismissal.

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