Walker v. Commonwealth

James Leonard Walker was convicted by a jury of conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced by the trial court to serve twenty years in the penitentiary. The dispositive issue is raised by the following assignment of error:

The court erred in failing to quash the indictment and dismiss the same on account of the failure of the Commonwealth to try the defendant within five months from the time of his preliminary hearing, April 8, 1981, said defendant, having been held uninterruptedly in the Washington County Jail since said date.

The defendant, a resident of Charleston, South Carolina, was…