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"I've never known of anyone who was in jail for years on end in this country, w/o ever having been found guilty of a crime."

A while back when there was discussion on the Westerfild thread about him not waiving his right to a speedy trial there was discussion on how soon the trial would have to take place if he did not waive his right.

I did a Google search and came up with a thread that gave a case where a person has been in jail for 5 years and has never been charged yet. I am unable to find that thread but found this one this time.

SWIFT JUSTICE? THE RIGHT TO A SPEEDY TRIAL

"Although four murder suspects were quite pleased with a City judge's decision to dismiss first-degree murder charges against them, others, including the victim's family, have reacted to these dismissals with outrage. According to Judge Roger W. Brown, these defendants were denied their state constitutional rights to a speedy trial by being placed on hold for nearly three years. Yet, his dismissal of all charges against these men has prompted many serious questions about our criminal justice system:"

Swift Justice?

All I'm really saying, Spunky, is that there are not legions of people sitting rotting in jail without ever having been charged with a crime, or without being allowed a hearing to try to get out.

The main thing, in my experience, which might make a person stay in jail a fairly long time PRE-TRIAL, is the back-up of court dockets in some jurisdictions.

But the fact is that most persons awaiting trial for a crime have a bail amount set for them. The bail amount is set taking into consideration the person's likelihood of not showing up for court if released, his prior violent offenses, his likelihood of harming the victims of the crime he's charged with, etc. The person can ask repeatedly for his bail to be lowered.

With capital murder, of course, no bail is set. Yes, that is a problem even for people like OJ who could meet almost any bail requirement. Sorry, OJ--you should've gotten arrested for something other than capital murder!

There are agencies which will work with prisoners awaiting trial to put up their bail for them. This is designed to help those who are too poor to raise even a moderate bail amount. If a prisoner is bailed out by one of these agencies, usually there is a requirement that he report periodically to be tested for illegal drug use. If his urine samples are clean, he stays out.

There was one very unusual case I know of where a deaf-mute man was lost in the system for a while. But someone found him, fortunately, and his rights were secured.

As for being in jail for 5 years w/o being charged, I guess it depends on what you mean by "charged". Charges are brought by police, and that results in arrest. Charges are brought by DA's, and that results in a preliminary hearing. Charges are brought by grand juries, and that is indictment.

There are periodic court dates built into the system. The police can't hold a person longer than 72 hours without bringing him before a judge or magistrate, who is supposed to be an impartial evaluator of whether the person should be held or not. This even goes for juveniles.