Supreme Court takes up speedy trial dispute in Montana case

The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments pertaining to the Montana criminal case since the defendant is arguing his constitutional rights for a speedy trial.

According to NBC Montana, the Supreme Court is set up next week to decide whether the constitutional rights indicted in Sixth Amendment applies to a defendant who's already been convicted with the charges but didn't receive sentencing until later. Brandon Betterman's seven-year prison sentence in Montana court has been revealed 14 months after he pleaded guilty for jumping bail in 2012. However, Montana prosecutors hold that Sixth Amendment's language is clear: Betterman's trial ended with his plea and with it is his claim to the amendment violation.

Times Daily wrote that the Sixth Amendment has been around for 225 years but the questions of whether sentencing falls under its speedy trials have never reached the court before. According to University of Montana professor Anthony Johnstone, "At its bottom, the case presents a question of what that word 'trial' means against a long historical backdrop of Americans' and Englishmen's rights - all the way back to the Magna Carta - of a fair trial." Nonetheless, it should be noted that 14 months of waiting is a long time but Johnstone included that once the individual is convicted, he's no longer accused and therefore some rights don't apply.

Betterman was convicted for jumping bail when he failed to appear in Butte court in 2011, ABC News wrote. The charge was a domestic one and he was sentenced for five years in prison. He pleaded guilty to the separate charge of jumping bail in 2012. The delays included waiting for pre-sentencing investigation report and a further one after he tried to get the charge against him dismissed because of the time it was taking to sentence him. Betterman was finally sentenced in June 2013 with seven years in prison.

Betterman said the delay made him unable to complete the requirements of his domestic violence sentence as he cited counseling. The delay reportedly caused him anxiety and depression.

Betterman previously appeared on Montana Supreme Court wherein it was ruled that the right do not apply to conviction to sentencing. His appeal for U.S. Supreme Court was granted on December. 

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Montana, Supreme Court, US Supreme Court, sixth amendment, convicted rights, speedy trial

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