ELLIS v. the STATE.
343 Ga. App. 391
| Ga. Ct. App. | 2017Background
- Ellis was arrested Feb 15, 2013, indicted for multiple sexual offenses, and remained incarcerated on a parole violation throughout pretrial proceedings.
- Counsel Brian McWhorter entered in June 2013; the case was repeatedly continued between Nov 2013 and 2016, including joinder and later severance of two influencing-a-witness indictments.
- Joinder of an influencing charge (Aug 2014) created a potential conflict for McWhorter; McWhorter sought to withdraw, the court vacillated, and the state later unsuccessfully sought McWhorter’s disqualification.
- Two defense witnesses (including Ashley Jones) died during the delay; Ellis filed pro se and later counsel-adopted pleas in bar claiming Sixth Amendment speedy-trial violations; the trial court denied relief on Aug 26, 2016.
- The Court of Appeals held the trial court erred in key factual findings and in its Barker/Doggett analysis (particularly assignment of responsibility for delays and assessment of witness-death prejudice), vacated the denial, and remanded for a proper balancing under the constitutional speedy-trial framework.
Issues
| Issue | Plaintiff's Argument | Defendant's Argument | Held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whether 3+ year pretrial delay was presumptively prejudicial | Ellis: delay from arrest to denial of plea in bar (Feb 2013–Aug 2016) is presumptively prejudicial | State: delays caused partly by defense and case complexity | Held: yes — three-and-a-half years is presumptively prejudicial (court accepted trial court’s finding) |
| How to apportion responsibility for delays | Ellis: many continuances and state actions (joinder, later severance, failure to bring to trial) caused delay | State: defense consented to some continuances and proposed sequencing; some delays were defense-caused | Held: trial court made clearly erroneous factual findings and failed to break delay into periods; remanded to assign weight to each period and reason for delay |
| Whether Ellis timely asserted his speedy-trial right | Ellis: pro se and later counsel-adopted pleas in bar (Dec 2014 pro se objection to counsel withdrawal; Aug 2015 pro se plea; May 2016 plea) amounted to assertions | State: earlier pro se filings while represented had no legal effect; main assertion was in 2016, weighed against Ellis | Held: trial court overlooked Dec 2014 objection and failed to analyze mitigation of timing; remand to reassess whether assertion was in due course |
| Prejudice from witness deaths and other harms | Ellis: death of Ashley Jones and Tammy Stansell deprived defense of material exculpatory testimony | State: court below found no impairment from Jones’s death and no prejudice from Stansell (whose death predated calendar) | Held: trial court erred — McWhorter’s proffer about Jones constituted adequate evidence of lost exculpatory testimony and must be weighed; court must also evaluate adequacy of proffer re: Stansell on remand |
Key Cases Cited
- Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514 (established the multi-factor speedy-trial balancing test)
- Doggett v. United States, 505 U.S. 647 (clarified prejudice presumption and framework for delay cases)
- State v. Porter, 288 Ga. 524 (trial-court factual-error diminishes deference in speedy-trial review)
- Phan v. State, 290 Ga. 588 (allocation of responsibility for delay; negligence by state when no reason shown)
- State v. Buckner, 292 Ga. 390 (delay approaching one year can be presumptively prejudicial)
- Ruffin v. State, 284 Ga. 52 (weighting of delay caused by related prosecutions and state responsibility)
- York v. State, 334 Ga. App. 581 (delay between indictment/arrest and first calendar must be considered and attributed if unexplained)
- Layman v. State, 284 Ga. 83 (courts must assign varying degrees of weight to different reasons for delay)