Grizzard v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

11 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 11 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The four factors that form the core of the constitutional speedy trial balancing test are: (1) whether the delay before trial was uncommonly long, (2) whether the government or the criminal defendant is more to blame for that delay, (3) whether, in due course, the defendant asserted the right to a speedy trial, and (4) whether he or she suffered prejudice as the delay’s result. None of the Barker-Doggett factors is either a necessary or sufficient condition to the finding of a deprivation of the right of speedy trial. The four factors emphasized in Barker and Doggett do not constitute an exhaustive list; they have no talismanic qualities and must be considered together with such other circumstances as may be relevant given the animating principles behind the speedy trial guarantee. Thus, the second stage of the constitutional speedy trial analysis requires courts to engage in a difficult and sensitive balancing process and necessarily compels them to approach speedy trial cases on an ad hoc basis.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 303 Ga. App. 341 - Ferguson v. State

2. “In the first stage of the analysis, the court must determine whether the pretrial delay is sufficiently long to be considered presumptively prejudicial. The pretrial delay is measured from the accused’s arrest, indictment, or other formal accusation [whichever comes first — see Boseman v. State 4 ] to the trial or, if the accused files a motion to dismiss the indictment, until the trial court denies the motion. If the delay has passed the point of presumptive prejudice, the court must proceed to the second step of the Barker-Doggett analysis, which requires the application of a delicate, context-sensitive, four-factor balancing test to determine whether the accused has been deprived of the right to a speedy trial.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 303 Ga. App. 341 - Ferguson v. State

3. “if ever there were a case in which the weight assigned to official negligence should be compounded, this is the case.... [T]he eight-year delay here — even if reduced by one year to account for Grizzard’s successful appeal — mandated that the trial court should have compounded the weight and weighed this factor heavily against the State, not merely benignly.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Taylor v. the State