State v. Hughes

VAUGHN, Judge.

Defendant first assigns as error the State’s failure to grant him a speedy trial. We begin by noting that North Carolina’s Speedy Trial Act does not apply since the offense occurred before the statute’s effective date. G.S. 15A-701 to -704. Defendant’s claim, therefore, rests on his right to a speedy trial, guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment, made applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. Klopfer v. North Carolina, 386 U.S. 213, 87 S.Ct. 988, 18 L.Ed. 2d 1 (1967). The right to a speedy trial is more vague than other procedural rights because “speedy” is not…