Joe Priestly Stuard v. Terry L. Stewart, Deputy

This is a habeas petition in which the petitioner claims he was unconstitutionally forced to choose between two constitutional entitlements, his right to a speedy trial and his right to effective assistance of counsel.

Facts

Stuard committed an astonishing number of armed robberies. His restitution order, for the robberies of which he was convicted, showed a few hundred dollars each payable to Subway, Baskin Robbins, Domino’s, Dairy Queen, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Video Doctor, Little Caesars, and Payne & Morrison Flowers. Altogether he was convicted of ten armed robberies and four aggravated assaults, and sentenced to 266 years.

As Stuard approached trial, about three months after being indicted on one of the robberies, the prosecutor moved to consolidate the case for trial with another indictment charging him with the rest. This put considerable pressure on defense counsel, who now had to try a much more extensive case that involved many more witnesses. On September 19, at the pretrial conference held to set a firm trial date, the prosecutor suggested that defense counsel might need more time to prepare than the Arizona speedy trial rule would allow, and expressed concern that…