LAW FOR ALL

SPEEDY TRIAL = The Louisiana Third Circuit Court of Appeal made a serious error: It did not charge the State’s failure to pay Boyer’s lawyer against the State in determining whether there was a violation of his right to a speedy trial. Because a State bears the ultimate responsibility for funding adequately an indigent’s defense, our precedents require a court to count this delay against the State and not the criminal defendant. Rather than dismiss the writ, I would answer the question on which we granted certiorari and remand for the Louisiana court to conduct the Barker analysis anew. I respectfully dissent from the Court’s judgment of dismissal.