Steve Richardsonv.The State
Steve Richardson was arrested in January 2007 and indicted days later on child-molestation and related charges. He filed a speedy-trial motion in July 2008, but the State did not provide some crime-scene photographs, surveillance video, and a forensic interview until 2010. After an earlier appellate remand for inadequate findings, the trial court again denied discharge and acquittal, measuring delay only to its first order. The Georgia Court of Appeals vacated and remanded. It held that the relevant period ran from arrest through the new September 2011 order—about four years and eight months—not merely to the original 2010 order. The trial court therefore had to reconsider the additional 13-month delay, including delay attributable to state actors. It also erred by categorically refusing to consider the State’s discovery failures as a possible reason Richardson delayed asserting his right, and by failing to weigh the strengthening presumption of prejudice from the longer delay. The majority directed reconsideration of anxiety and concern connected to Richardson’s lost law-enforcement opportunities. Judge Barnes concurred specially, arguing that the existing record supported the trial court’s finding that Richardson had not shown unusual anxiety. The case was remanded for a new Barker-Doggett analysis.
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