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Criminal Procedure — speedy trials — IAD

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//May 29, 2013//

Criminal Procedure — speedy trials — IAD

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//May 29, 2013//

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Wisconsin Court of Appeals

Criminal

Criminal Procedure — speedy trials — IAD

The speedy trial time clock does not begin to run until the State receives notice of the demand.

“The purpose of the IAD is to prompt prosecutors to bring defendants to trial, which a prosecutor cannot do until he or she actually receives notice of the speedy trial request. The warden’s receipt of the request, or Information Management’s receipt of the request, does not give the prosecutor that notice. And even if the delay here was not Thomas’s fault, Thomas offers no evidence that it was the State’s fault either. To dismiss child sex assault and kidnapping charges against Thomas due to a three-day mail delay is contrary to well-recognized public policy. By requiring that the speedy trial request be actually received by the district attorney before the 180-day clock starts running, the legislature was acknowledging that only the prosecutor (not a mail room) is in a position to timely move the prisoner on to trial. Here, the district attorney did comply with the 180-day time limit from the date of actual receipt of Thomas’s notice, March 18, 2010. Construing the statute to require actual receipt by the prosecutor, even in the case of no fault on the prisoner’s part in mailing the request, is consistent with the statute’s clear legislative intent as interpreted by the United States Supreme Court in Fex.”

Affirmed.

Recommended for publication in the official reports.

2012AP823-CR State v. Thomas

Dist. I, Milwaukee County, Sankovitz, J., Brennan, J.

Attorneys: For Appellant: Gaertner, Kevin Michael, Milwaukee; For Respondent: Loebel, Karen A., Milwaukee; O’Neil, Aaron R., Madison

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