Marquez Ward appeals the denial of his motion to dismiss the criminal charges against him, contending the 34-month delay between his arrest and motion violated his right to a speedy trial under the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Because the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the motion, we affirm. In this case, Ward was arrested in February 2008 on two counts each of armed robbery, aggravated assault, and kidnapping. In May 2008, the court appointed a public defender to represent Ward, and the attorney appeared at Ward’s arraignment in June 2008. The lawyer filed discovery motions, and in July 2008 the trial court granted Ward a $500,000 bond, which Ward was unable to post. On August 4, 2008, Ward’s public defender moved to withdraw as the attorney of record because his contract with the Northern Circuit Public Defender’s Office expired on June 30, 2008, and he had been unsuccessful in his attempts “to make arrangements with both the Northern Circuit Public Defender’s Office and the Georgia Public Defender’s Standards Council to provide remuneration or, at a minimum, provide reimbursement of actual expenses.” Forcing him to represent Ward with no promise of payment was unconstitutional and would cause him a “true and severe economic hardship,” he argued. The trial court granted the motion on August 4, 2008 and relieved the lawyer from representing Ward.
On September 25, 2008, Ward moved the court to appoint counsel for him, noting that he had been found indigent, that the public defender’s office had been found to have a conflict as it represented a co-defendant, and that his previously-appointed counsel had been allowed to withdraw “due to lack of funding for conflict cases.”1 In October 2008, Ward’s case was transferred to a different superior court judge, and on January 7, 2009 a new attorney entered an appearance as counsel for Ward. Ward later explained at a hearing on his motion to dismiss that his family had scraped together enough money to hire this lawyer because Ward had been in jail for almost a year without a lawyer.
