Aye v. Maryland

This is the fourth time Willie Frederick Brady has asked an appellate court in the State of Maryland to determine whether he was denied his constitutional right to a speedy trial. The first time he asked, the Court of Special Appeals, in an unreported per curiam opinion, Willie Frederick Brady Page 263} v. State of Maryland, No. 1226, September Term, 1978, filed June 11, 1979, held that because the defendant was unaware of the pending charge for most of the 14-month period of delay, a showing of actual prejudice resulting from the delay was necessary for a dismissal of the charge on speedy trial grounds. This court reversed approximately one year later in Brady v. State, 288 Md. 61, 415 A.2d 1126 (1980) (Brady I), because we determined that the Court of Special Appeals did not weigh all of the various factors relevant to the delay, and we remanded the case to that court for application of the balancing test in accordance with the principles set forth in our opinion. On September 22, 1980, the Court of Special Appeals again affirmed Appellants conviction, this time in a reported opinion, Brady v. State, 46 Md. App. 518, 419 A.2d 390 (1980). We granted certiorari to settle the role of prejudice in speedy trial cases and to emphasize the role to be played by the other factors courts have stressed as important in the balancing process.