zero self awareness
(media.kotakuinaction2.win)
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"The right to a speedy trial" means before 100 years have passed.
She was arrested in California. Under California law your right to a speedy trial means that the trial must commence within 45 days if you're not in custody or within 30 days if you are. If she was arrested on federal charges they have 70 days to bring her to trial.
The thing is, waiving your right to a speedy trial is pretty standard in almost all cases, because you generally want to give your defense team as much time as possible to prepare. If you are out on bail, it's almost a no-brainer because you can continue to work and live almost to normal life while waiting for the trial to commence.
I'm not sure why more defendants don't refuse to waive it as a tactical maneuver, considering the state will be as rushed as your own attorneys, and if very many people demanded their right to a speedy trial at the same time it would quickly overwhelm the justice system and result in mountains of dismissals.
Particularly in cases where the defendant is denied bail, it doesn't seem very advantageous to waive their rights, is the government pretty much has what it wants as long as you're in jail and have no incentive to not drag the entire process out as long as humanly possible.
The trial has been delayed by Mercedes herself numerous times, but the faggot judge still won't grant bail. The reason is that everything hinges on the testimony of the daughter who was manipulated by her father into making the accusations in the first place. They're waiting for the girl to grow up enough to understand how serious this all is so she won't just lie on the stand because daddy told her to.
Yup, that's what I've heard too. The whole thing is still insane, but at least some of the delay is on her end...although it sounds like her lawyers have screwed her (no, not like that) a few times too. She's delayed things...but so has everyone else.
It's still wild she's been in jail for six years...and they've dropped many of the original charges, too, as I understand.
It's crazy, too. I'm all for protecting children, and if they did abuse the child they can burn in hell, but it seems like a bunch of this was just 'stuff happened, and there was a child nearby,' so they tacked on a bunch of modifiers. There was a gun and drugs in the house...so the gun became illegal because of the drugs, and both became worse because there was a child in the vicinity. And then a bunch of shit was taken out of context, I believe.
Again, if they actually harmed the child, they can rot. But the courts are so far from proving that it's absurd. I haven't kept a close eye on this but, as I recall, it was basically a bit of a sketchy environment, which led to what was essentially a (post)marital dispute getting really out of hand.
The father became a born-again religious type, and the case was brought in one of the harshest, most corrupt, shithole mafia court districts in California for a reason. I believe the father and the lead prosecutor in the case knew each other somehow too. I want to say it was that they played golf at the same club for years.
I'd suggest that a group of people involved in the process have a financial incentive to advise defendants to waive their right.
Beyond that, the system endears so much legalese and judicial "red tape" that preparing a defense might not be realistic in only 30 or 45 days. Since this effectively destroys that right, it could be argued that this outcome is intentional. Alternatively, a bloated bureaucratic judicial system rides atop the mountain of regulation and law created by legislators, and has made a fast defense impractical.