Speedy Trial Clause

Documenting that the old English right to a speedy trial was foundational to the practice of law and was therefore incorporated into many state constitutions and, after being proposed by Madison, adopted into the Bill of Rights without controversy.

Contending that the inclusion of the right to a speedy trial in the Bill of Rights and other Founding-Era documents, including state constitutions, incorporated an established entitlement of English citizenry rather than a new, revolutionary right.

Arguing that the right to a speedy trial finds its origins in the Magna Carta, which protected the right of all freemen to speedy disposition of trials, and was uncontroversial both in terms of incorporation into the Constitution and post-Revolutionary litigation.

Relying on Founding-Era dictionaries and scholarship and juxtaposing the Speedy Trial Clause with the language chosen for other provisions of the Constitution to conclude that the Speedy Trial Clause is not triggered until there is formal governmental accusation rather than at the time the crime is committed