The Dekalb County grand jury returned a true bill of indictment in August 2007 that charged appellant Eric Rogers with malice and felony murder in connection with both the 1991 death of Mark Birmingham and the 1995 death of Darnell Patterson. This direct appeal follows the trial court’s denial of appellant’s amended motion for discharge and acquittal in which appellant sought relief pursuant to OCGA § 17-10-171b statutory speedy-trial provision and his constitutional right to a speedy trial found in the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section I, Paragraph IX a of the 1983 Georgia Constitution.1The appeal is limited to review of the trial court’s denial of appellant’s motion based on his constitutional right to a speedy trial.2 The constitutional right to a speedy trial attaches at the time of arrest or when formal charges are brought, whichever is earlier. Boseman v. State , 263 Ga. 730 1 438 SE2d 626 1994. Because appellant was serving a sentence on an unrelated charge in Mississippi when the Dekalb indictment was returned, the date of the Dekalb County indictment is the crucial date in this case. Jones v. State , 284 Ga. 320 2 667 SE2d 49 2008 date of indictment is the crucial date for a prisoner already incarcerated on a prior offense. Because appellant has yet to be tried on the murder charges, the focus is on the twelve-month, ten-day period of time between the return of appellant’s murder indictment on August 23, 2007, and the filing of the motion to dismiss on September 2, 2008. See id., at 323.
Upon a defendant showing that the delay is “presumptively prejudicial,” a court faced with a motion alleging violation of the constitutional right to a speedy trial then engages in “a difficult and sensitive balancing process” in which it assesses the length of the delay, the reason for the delay, the defendant’s assertion of the right, and prejudice to the defendant in order to decide whether an accused’s constitutional right to a speedy trial has been violated. Barker v. Wingo , 407 U.S. 514, 530 92 SC 2182, 33 LE2d 101 1972; Wimberly v. State , 279 Ga. 65, 66 608 SE2d 625 2005. See also Bowling v. State , 285 Ga. 43 1a 673 SE2d 194 2009; Jones v. State , supra, 284 Ga. at 323; Williams v. State , 282 Ga. 561 4 651 SE2d 674 2007.3 A criminal defendant “cannot complain that the government has denied him a ‘speedy trial’ if it has, in fact, prosecuted his case with customary promptness.” Doggett v. United States , 505 U.S. 647, 651-652 112 SC 2686, 120 LE2d 520 1992.4
