Reed v. Farley, 512 U.S. 339, 30 (1994)

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368

REED v. FARLEY

Blackmun, J., dissenting

First, the congressional imposition of the drastic sanction of dismissal forecloses any argument that a violation of the IAD time limits is somehow a mere "technical" violation too trivial to warrant habeas review. The dismissal with prejudice of criminal charges is a remedy rarely seen in criminal law, even for constitutional violations. See, e. g., Barker v. Wingo, 407 U. S. 514 (1972) (violation of Sixth Amendment speedy trial right); Oregon v. Kennedy, 456 U. S. 667 (1982) (violation of Double Jeopardy Clause). In fact, there are countless constitutional violations for which habeas review is allowed, but dismissal is not required. However this Court might have assessed the "fundamentality" of a violation of the IAD time limits in the absence of this sanction, this congressional directive does not leave us free to determine that violating the IAD time limits is no more serious than failure to comply with the technical requirements of Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11, United States v. Timmreck, 441 U. S. 780 (1979), or the formal requirements of Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 32(a), Hill, 368 U. S., at 428.

Surely, a violation that Congress found troubling enough to warrant the severe remedy of dismissal cannot become trivial simply because the defendant did not utter what this Court later determines to be the magic words at the magic moment, particularly in the absence of any congressional requirement that the defendant either invoke his right to a timely trial or object to the setting of an untimely trial date. In the absence of any suggestion that Reed procedurally defaulted on his IAD claim so as to deprive him of relief on direct review, it is curious, to say the least, to deny habeas relief based largely on a sort of "quasi-default" standard. Such a two-tiered "default" standard is unwarranted, and to my knowledge, unprecedented.9 Cf. Davis v. United States,

9 Sunal, Hill, and Timmreck, in which the defendant took no appeal from a federal conviction, provide no support for this quasi-waiver standard. None of these cases presents a situation in which the defendant's

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