Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the court. The question that has been brought before this court is whether the delay in Mr. Betterman’s sentencing was a violation of his 6th amendment right to a “ Speedy and public trial by an impartial jury”.

Mr. Betterman has claimed that the 10 month delay, which he spent in jail, between his trial and his final sentencing caused him physical harm because he was deprived access to drug rehabilitation programs and also suffered from anxiety in regards to his case, and as such he argues that the daley was a violation of his right to a speedy public trial as provided in the 6th amendment and also the Speedy Trial Act. As stated, his desire is to simply have his sentence shortened by the time he spent in jail waiting, although the court may or may not be aware that he was already serving time for a previous …show more content…
As such, the speedy trial act applies solely to the accused rather then the convicted.

This is not to say that delays in sentencing have no adverse consequences on the defendant, rather that instead of such delays being covered under the speedy trial clause, they are covered under the Due Process Clause, which applies to all steps of the conviction process.

And in order to prove a due process violation, prejudice usually need to be shown, and in terms of trials prejudice is considered to be anything that would have caused an unquestionably different outcome in the case if it had been present, such as a witness who died in the long waiting period or simply the passage of