State v. Mines

It once was that a delay in bringing an accused to trial was governed solely by the guarantees of a speedy trial set out in the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and Article 21 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights. A delay of constitutional dimension triggered the "difficult and sensitive balancing process” of Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514, 92 S. Ct. 2182 (1972), and when that test showed that the constitutional guarantees were offended, the appropriate sanction was the dismissal of the charges. See Jones v. State, 279 Md. 1, 367 A.2d 1 (1976), cert. denied, 431 U.S.…