State v. Seay

VAUGHN, Judge.

Defendant first assigns error in the denial of his pretrial motion to dismiss for denial of his right to a speedy trial embodied in the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment and the Eighteenth Section of the First Article of the North Carolina Constitution. Almost five years had passed from the alleged embezzlements in April, 1973 until the 27 February 1978 indictments.

Such a long period of time, nothing else appearing, constitutes unusual and undue delay.

“[W]hen there has been an atypical delay in issuing a…