The Rights to Speedy Trials

The Rights to Speedy Trials

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to critically analyze, assess and share information pertaining to the topic “The Rights of Speedy trials”. We often hear and read that any Justice delayed is justice denied. Legal proceedings with appropriate speed are an important means of ensuring criminal justice. Although defendants might be released on bail, many of them remain in detention. For those who are in custody, an acquittal means that they suffered unjust punishment. For those who have spent that time out of custody, more crimes could have been committed, resulting in an unsafe society (Carrington, 1969). Moreover, while defendants still live their lives, the final convicted judgments could eliminate the education, jobs, and family lives they might have had during that time. Therefore, scholars recognize a speedy trial as a basic principle of criminal proceedings. Criminal cases start in trial courts with an indictment by a prosecutor or an injured person. This paper provides insight into the relationship between courts trials as it relates to the speed and reliability of the criminal appeal process. Because delays in the appellate proceedings negatively impact the accused and society, and because the appellate court, as a fact-finder, needs justification for adjudicating factual issues, this study analyzes the problem of delay caused by repetitious proceedings and the problem of unreliability caused by the court reporting system.

Discussion

Speedy trial is a right under the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Speedy criminal appeal means the timeliness in reviewing or retrying and adjudicating criminal cases in the appellate court (Ibara, 2011). The major source of criminal procedure law comes from the Criminal Procedure Code and its subsequent amendments. There are other procedural laws applicable to special types of criminal offenses or to particular kinds of offenders, such as procedures for minor offenses in Magistrate Courts, drug cases, juvenile offenders in Juvenile and Family Courts, offenses against the intellectual properties, and criminal prosecutions cases of politicians in the Supreme Court. However, such special cases normally apply the general principles and procedures from the Criminal Procedure Code to their cases (Ibara, 2011).

In recent times there has been a remarkable growth of crime, especially in the “low intensity”, crimes, which are characterized for being minor violations, but which affect a large number of citizens. As societies have grown more complex, appeals play an important role in legal systems. By its nature, an appeal arises when any decision can be considered by a second person or body, or can be reconsidered by the original person or body that made the decision (Ibara, 2011).

Rights to Speedy Trials

A speedy criminal appeal is generally not a constitutional right. Unlike the right to a speedy trial, there is no constitutional provision that guarantees even a right to appeal in criminal proceedings. However, a right to appeal in a criminal case is widely recognized in most of the criminal justice systems. While the right to a speedy trial is a constitutional safeguard against an undue delay ...