Marc Gilbert Doggett v. United States (505 U.S. 647)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 24, 1992 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 505 U.S. 647 · 112 S. Ct. 2686
- Decided
- June 24, 1992
- Term
- October Term 1991
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Souter
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Souter delivered the opinion of the Court. In this case we consider whether the delay of 8V2 years between petitioner’s indictment and arrest violated his Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial. We hold that it did. I On February 22, 1980, petitioner Marc Doggett was indicted for conspiring with several others to import and distribute cocaine. See 84 Stat. 1265, 1291, as amended, 21 U. S. C. §§846, 963. Douglas Driver, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA’s) principal agent investigating the conspiracy, told the United States Marshal’s Service that the DEA would oversee the apprehension of Doggett and his confederates. On March 18, 1980, two police officers set out under Driver’s orders to arrest Doggett at his parents’ house in Raleigh, North Carolina, only to find that he was not there. His mother told the officers that he had left for Colombia four days earlier. To catch Doggett on his return to the United States, Driver sent word of his outstanding arrest warrant to all United States Customs stations and to a number of law enforcement organizations. He also placed Doggett’s name in the Treasury Enforcement Communication System (TECS), a computer network that helps Customs agents screen people entering the country, and in the National Crime Information Center computer system, which serves similar ends. The TECS entry expired that September, however, and…
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