Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic is still an ever-present phenomenon in the United States. Since the pandemic began in March 2020, over one million Americans have died as a result of this disease. During that time period, the pandemic impacted the everyday lives of Americans and the institutions we depend on. The judicial system in particular was affected by COVID-19. In Virginia, the Supreme Court of Virginia declared a judicial emergency in response to the pandemic. As a result of this judicial emergency, the trial of many criminal defendants were postponed for an indefinitie period of time. This resulted in many criminal defendants languishing in jail during the pandemic. Many of these defendants, in Virginia and other states, have challenged their subsequest convictions, arguing that their Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial was violated when their trials were not allowed to move forward. These challenges have been met with little to no success. On May 31, 2022, the Court of Appeals of Virginia decided a case, Ali v. Commonwealth, that sought to bring clarity to the law of the Commonwealth relating to speedy trial rights and COVID-19. ...
Recommended Citation
Roger D. Herring,
Unavoidable Necessities: How COVID-19 and Ali v. Commonwealth Illustrate the Need for a New Balancing Test for Speedy Trial Right Claims,
57
U. Rich. L. Rev.
81
(2023).
Available at:
https://scholarship.richmond.edu/lawreview/vol57/iss5/4
