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nor would they seem to require the Government to discover, investigate, and accuse any person within any particular period of time. The Amendment would appear to guarantee to a criminal defendant that the Government will move with the dispatch that is appropriate to assure him an early and proper disposition of the charges against him."

In addition to the period after indictment, the period between arrest and indictment must be considered in evaluating a Speedy Trial Clause claim. Dillingham v. United States, 423 U. S. 64 (1975). Although delay prior to arrest or indictment may give rise to a due process claim under the Fifth Amendment, see United States v. Lovasco, 431 U. S. 783, 788-789 (1977), or to a claim under any applicable statutes of limitations, no Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial arises until charges are pending.

Similarly, the Speedy Trial Clause has no application after the Government, acting in good faith, formally drops charges. Any undue delay after charges are dismissed, like any delay before charges are filed, must be scrutinized under the Due Process Clause, not the Speedy Trial Clause." The Court identified the interests served by the Speedy Trial Clause in United States v. Marion, supra, at 320:

"Inordinate delay between arrest, indictment, and trial may impair a defendant's ability to present an effective

Our holding agrees with the determination made by Congress in enacting the Speedy Trial Act of 1974, 18 U. S. C. § 3161 et seq. The Act, intended "to give effect to the sixth amendment right to a speedy trial. . .," S. Rep. No. 93-1021, p. 1 (1974), provides that if charges are initially dismissed and later reinstated, the period between the dismissal and the reinstatement is not to be included in computing the time within which a trial must commence. 18 U. S. C. §§ 3161(d), 3161(h)(6).

Most of the Courts of Appeals considering this issue have also reached the conclusion that the period after dismissal of initial charges is not included in determining whether the Speedy Trial Clause has been violated. See, e. g., United States v. Hillegas, 578 F. 2d 453, 457-458 (CA2 1978);

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defense. But the major evils protected against by the speedy trial guarantee exist quite apart from actual or possible prejudice to an accused's defense. To legally arrest and detain, the Government must assert probable cause to believe the arrestee has committed a crime. Arrest is a public act that may seriously interfere with the defendant's liberty, whether he is free on bail or not, and that may disrupt his employment, drain his financial resources, curtail his associations, subject him to public obloquy, and create anxiety in him, his family and his friends."

See also Barker v. Wingo, 407 U. S. 514, 532–533 (1972). The Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial is thus not primarily intended to prevent prejudice to the defense caused by passage of time; that interest is protected primarily by the Due Process Clause and by statutes of limitations. The speedy trial guarantee is designed to minimize the possibility of lengthy incarceration prior to trial, to reduce the lesser, but nevertheless substantial, impairment of liberty imposed on an accused while released on bail, and to shorten the disruption of life caused by arrest and the presence of unresolved criminal charges.

8

Once charges are dismissed, the speedy trial guarantee is no longer applicable. At that point, the formerly accused is, at most, in the same position as any other subject of a crimi

Arnold v. McCarthy, 566 F. 2d 1377, 1383 (CA9 1978); United States v. Martin, 543 F. 2d 577 (CA6 1976), cert. denied, 429 U. S. 1050 (1977); United States v. Bishton, 150 U. S. App. D. C. 51, 55, 463 F. 2d. 887, 891 (1972). The Fifth Circuit reached a seemingly contrary result in United States v. Avalos, 541 F. 2d 1100 (1976), cert. denied, 430 U. S. 970 (1977). However in that case the court relied on unusual facts; the Government dismissed charges pending in one district in order to prosecute the defendants on those same charges in another district.

In none of the cases cited in the dissenting opinion, post, at 17-18, n. 2, from the First, Seventh, or Tenth Circuits did the Court of Appeals consider or discuss the issue before us.

"Klopfer v. North Carolina, 386 U. S. 213 (1967), is not to the contrary. There, under an unusual state procedure, a prosecutor was able to suspend

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nal investigation. Certainly the knowledge of an ongoing criminal investigation will cause stress, discomfort, and perhaps a certain disruption in normal life. This is true whether or not charges have been filed and then dismissed. This was true in Marion, where the defendants had been subjected to a lengthy investigation which received considerable press attention. But with no charges outstanding, personal liberty is certainly not impaired to the same degree as it is after arrest while charges are pending. After the charges against him have been dismissed, "a citizen suffers no restraints on his liberty and is [no longer] the subject of public accusation: his situation does not compare with that of a defendant who has been arrested and held to answer." United States v. Marion, 404 U. S., at 321. Following dismissal of charges, any restraint on liberty, disruption of employment, strain on financial resources, and exposure to public obloquy, stress and anxiety is no greater than it is upon anyone openly subject to a criminal investigation.

III

The Court of Appeals held, in essence, that criminal charges were pending against MacDonald during the entire period between his military arrest and his later indictment on civilian charges. 10 We disagree. In this case, the homicide charges initiated by the Army were terminated less than a

proceedings on an indictment indefinitely. The prosecutor could activate the charges at any time and have the case restored for trial, "without further order" of the court. Id., at 214. The charges against the defendant were thus never dismissed or discharged in any real sense so the speedy trial guarantee continued to apply.

'The Marion defendants were charged with operating a fraudulent home improvement business. The Court noted that the Washington Post ran a series of articles about the ongoing investigation of the business, and reported that the local United States Attorney predicted that indictments would be forthcoming. United States v. Marion, 404 U. S., at 309.

"The original Court of Appeals decision concluded "that MacDonald's military arrest was the functional equivalent of a civilian arrest" for Speedy Trial Clause purposes. United States v. MacDonald, 531 F. 2d 196, 204 (CA4 1976). Judge Craven, dissenting, disagreed with that con

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year after the crimes were committed; after that, there was no criminal prosecution pending on which MacDonald could have been tried until the grand jury, in January 1975, returned the indictment on which he was tried and convicted." During the intervening period, MacDonald was not under arrest, not in custody, and not subject to any "criminal prosecution." Inevitably, there were undesirable consequences flowing from the initial accusation by the Army and the continuing investigation after the Army charges were dismissed. Indeed, even had there been no charges lodged by the Army, the ongoing comprehensive investigation would have subjected MacDonald to stress and other adverse consequences. However, once the charges instituted by the Army were dismissed, MacDonald was legally and constitutionally in the same posture as though no charges had been made.12 He was free to go about his affairs, to practice his profession, and to continue with his life.

clusion, stating that the military proceedings were equivalent to a grand jury investigation followed by a failure to file an indictment. Id., at 209. In its petition for certiorari, the Government expressly declined to raise the issue of whether the military investigation triggered MacDonald's Sixth Amendment rights; we therefore do not express any opinion on that issue.

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"The initial Court of Appeals panel held that the prosecution by the Army and that by the Justice Department were conducted "by the government in its single sovereign capacity Id., at 204. Of course, an arrest or indictment by one sovereign would not cause the speedy trial guarantees to become engaged as to possible subsequent indictments by another sovereign.

12 There is no allegation here that the Army acted in bad faith in dismissing the charges. This is not a case where the Government dismissed and later reinstituted charges to evade the speedy trial guarantee. The Army clearly dismissed its charges because the Commanding General of MacDonald's unit, following the recommendation of the Article 32 investigating officer, concluded that they were untrue.

There is nothing to suggest that the Justice Department acted in bad faith in not securing an indictment until January 1975. After the Army dismissed its charges, it continued its investigation at the request of the

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STEVENS, J., concurring in judgment

The Court of Appeals acknowledged, and MacDonald concedes, that the delay between the civilian indictment and trial was caused primarily by MacDonald's own legal manuevers and, in any event, was not sufficient to violate the Speedy Trial Clause. Accordingly, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Reversed and remanded.

JUSTICE STEVENS, concurring in the judgment.

For the reasons stated by JUSTICE MARSHALL in Part II of his opinion, I also conclude that MacDonald's constitutional right to a speedy trial was not suspended during the period between the Army's dismissal of its charges in 1970 and the return of the civilian indictment in 1975. JUSTICE MARSHALL also is clearly correct in stating that the question whether the delay was constitutionally unacceptable is "close." Post, at 21. Since his opinion fairly identifies the countervailing factors, I need only state that the interest in allowing the Government to proceed cautiously and deliberately before making a final decision to prosecute for such a serious offense is of decisive importance for me in this case. I therefore concur in the Court's judgment.

Justice Department; the Army's initial 13-volume report was not submitted to the Justice Department until June 1972, and supplemental reports were filed as late as August 1973. Within a year, the Justice Department completed its review of the massive evidence thus accumulated and submitted the evidence to a grand jury. The grand jury returned the indictment five months later.

Plainly the indictment of an accused-perhaps even more so the indictment of a physician-for the heinous and brutal murder of his pregnant wife and two small children is not a matter to be hastily arrived at either by the prosecution authorities or by a grand jury. The devastating consequences to an accused person from the very fact of such an indictment is a matter which responsible prosecutors must weigh carefully. The care obviously given the matter by the Justice Department is certainly not any indication of bad faith or deliberate delay.

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