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Delaware Supreme Court finds violation of Sixth Amendment speedy sentencing right

By Douglas A. Berman

Thanks to this local article, I discovered the interesting work of the Delaware Supreme Court last week in Harris v. State, No. 125, 2008 (Del Aug. 28, 2008) (available here).  Here is the start of the newspaper account of the state high court ruling:The Delaware Supreme Court overturned the sentence of a man who pleaded guilty to sexual assault because a lower court violated his right to a speedy trial, taking six and a half years to sentence him. "We continue to assume that the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution requires a speedy sentencing and find that the sentencing delay in this case violated [Clinton H.] Harris's rights under that Amendment," Supreme Court Justice Henry duPont Ridgely said in the 12-page opinion issued last week...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on September 02, 2008 (boomark / email).