Betterman v. Montana

Betterman v. Montana
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 28, 2016 Decided May 19, 2016
Full case name	Brandon Thomas Betterman, Petitioner v. Montana
Docket no.	14-1457
Citations	578 U.S. ___ (more) 136 S. Ct. 1609; 194 L. Ed. 2d 723
Opinion announcement	Opinion announcement
Case history
Prior	State v. Betterman, 2015 MT 39, 378 Mont. 182, 342 P.3d 971; cert. granted, 136 S. Ct. 582 (2015).
Holding
"The Sixth Amendment's speedy trial guarantee does not apply once a defendant has been found guilty at trial or has pleaded guilty to criminal charges."
Court membership
Chief Justice John Roberts Associate Justices Anthony Kennedy · Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer Samuel Alito · Sonia Sotomayor Elena Kagan
Case opinions
Majority	Ginsburg, joined by unanimous
Concurrence	Thomas, joined by Alito
Concurrence	Sotomayor
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. VI

Betterman v. Montana, 578 U.S. ___ (2016), was a United States Supreme Court case which held that the right to a speedy trial does not guarantee the right to speedy sentencing. It was decided on May 19, 2016.^[1]

Background[]

Brandon T. Betterman was charged with an assault on a family member in 2011, but failed to show up at a Montana court room.^[2] In April 2012, Betterman pleaded guilty to jumping bail. He spent 14 months in a county jail in Montana while waiting for his sentence. In the summer of 2013, the judge sentenced him to seven years in prison, with four years suspended.^[3] Betterman ultimately appealed his case to the Supreme Court of the United States, where argued that holding him in the county jail for 14 months violated his constitutional rights, because the right to a speedy trial guaranteed under the Speedy Trial Clause of the Sixth Amendment extended to speedy sentencing.^[2]

Opinion of the Court[]

In a unanimous 8–0 ruling, the Montana Supreme Court's decision was upheld. Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the decision in an 11-page opinion.^[3]

See also[]

• List of United States Supreme Court cases
• Lists of United States Supreme Court cases by volume
• List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Roberts Court

References[]

Further reading[]

• Saetveit, Kristin (2016). "Beyond Pollard: Applying the Sixth Amendment's Speedy Trial Right to Sentencing" (PDF). Stanford Law Review. 68 (2): 481–509.

External links[]

• Text of Betterman v. Montana, 578 U.S. ___ (2016) is available from: Justia  Oyez (oral argument audio)  Supreme Court (slip opinion) 

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