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21 Sw. U. L. Rev. 31 (1992)
Speedy Trial Swift Justice: Full-Fledged Right or Second-Class Citizen

handle is hein.journals/swulr21 and id is 41 raw text is: SPEEDY TRIAL SWIFT JUSTICE: FULL- FLEDGED RIGHT OR SECOND- CLASS CITIZEN? Alfredo Garciat I. INTRODUCTION The constitutional right of a criminal defendant to a speedy trial, ingrained within the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitu- tion,' has been variously characterized by the United States Supreme Court as relative,2 amorphous,3 and slippery.4 At the same time, the Court has emphasized that the right to a speedy trial is fundamen- tal5 and that it constitutes one of the most basic rights preserved by our Constitution.6 The dichotomy posed by these apparently contradic- tory views of such an important facet of the Sixth Amendment requires an explanation. Unfortunately, neither the Supreme Court nor legal s~holars have managed to provide a satisfactory answer to this glaring paradox. In critiquing the ambivalent fashion in which the Court has dealt with the right to a speedy trial, Professor Uviller points to the faulty premise, embraced by the Court in Barker v. Wingo,7 that society has a countervailing interest in swift and speedy justice which sometimes t Associate Professor of Law, St. Thomas University, Miami, Florida. B.A. Jacksonville University; M.A., J.D. University of Florida. Member Florida Bar. Professor Garcia has practiced criminal law at the state and federal levels. This article constitutes a chapter in Professor Garcia's forthcoming book, THE SIXTH AMEND- MENT IN MODERN AMERICAN JURISPRUDENCE: A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE (Greenwood Press 1992). 1. The Sixth Amendment stipulates in pertinent part that [i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial .... U.S. CONST. amend. VI. 2. Beavers v. Haubert, 198 U.S. 77, 87 (1905). 3. Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514, 522 (1972). 4. Id. 5. Klopfer v. North Carolina, 386 U.S. 213, 223 (1967). 6. Id. at 226. 7. 407 U.S. 514 (1972).