Mark Alan Blackburn v. United States District Court for the Northern District of California, United States of America, Real Party in Interest

On July 14, 1976, petitioner Blackburn was indicted by a grand jury on charges of violating 18 U.S.C. § 1702 — Obstruction of Correspondence. Trial was held before a jury on September 20,1976. On September 24 a mistrial was declared when the jury was unable to reach a verdict. A retrial was originally scheduled for December 6, but on November 17 the district court vacated the scheduling sua sponte and set the case for January 3, 1977. Petitioner Blackburn had no opportunity to object to this rescheduling. On December 7, he moved for dismissal of the indictment on the grounds that his constitutional and statutory rights to a speedy trial had been violated. The district court denied this motion, and reset petitioner’s trial for January 14, 1977, to afford him an opportunity to seek review. This delay was the first attributable to petitioner. Petitioner seeks a writ of prohibition, or alternatively, a writ of mandamus, to restrain the respondent court from holding a second trial on the indictment.

Four factors are to be balanced in determining whether a delay in trial rises to the level of a Sixth Amendment violation: length of delay, reason for delay, defendant’s assertion of his…