[mlyle]

I'm saying most of the cases where people are held up as "detained for ____ days without trial", they have waived right to speedy trial.

The overwhelming majority of defendants not waiving speedy trials get a trial within a year.

Of the remaining, there's a big share that are various kinds of edge cases where it makes sense that a trial has taken a little longer than normal.

And then there's the remaining abuses and problems, which are relatively small in number but should be addressed.

[Retric]

Look even waiting 3 months is already a failure of the speedy requirement. Saying well 1 year is too long but edge cases isn’t a minor issue… No anyone ever hitting 1 year is clear evidence of total failure of the system to even pretend to care about this issue.

[mlyle]

> Look even waiting 3 months is already a failure of the speedy requirement.

3-4 months to get a criminal case together, with discovery requirements, etc, seems reasonable.

> No anyone ever hitting 1 year is clear evidence of total failure of the system to even pretend to care about this issue.

I don't agree. Terrible stuff happens occasionally-- it is not evidence that every element of the system is broken everywhere.

IMO the big issue is bail and pre-trial detention. Yes, criminal cases being in limbo is bad (and the constitutional right of speedy trial is important)-- but a lot of the reason why they take longer now than in the 18th century is because of additional protections for defendants.