Section 545.900

Title XXXVII CRIMINAL PROCEDURE

Chapter 545

Effective - 28 Aug 1939   

  545.900.  Defendant on bail — discharged if not tried before end of third term. — If any person indicted for any offense, and held to answer on bail, shall not be brought to trial before the end of the third term of the court in which the cause is pending which shall be held after such indictment found, he shall be entitled to be discharged, so far as relates to such offense, unless the delay happened on his application, or be occasioned by the want of time to try such cause at such third term.

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(RSMo 1939 § 4086)

Prior revisions: 1929 § 3697; 1919 § 4041; 1909 § 5247

(1953) The right to a discharge under §§ 545.890 to 545.920 does not involve a jurisdictional question and may be waived.  If asserted it is a matter for hearing and disposition in the trial court in the nature of an interlocutory proceeding. Such right cannot be asserted in habeas corpus proceeding. Osborne v. Owsley, 364 Mo. 544, 259 S.W.2d 129.

(1967) Where a continuance is granted upon the defendant's application, or because of some other action on his part, or upon the order of the court, not requested by the state, it is not a ground for discharge under the statute. Where a case is not tried at one or more terms, and the record is completely silent as to the reason why it was not tried, it is presumed, in the absence of proof to the contrary, that the failure of the state to try the case during such term or terms was not due to laches on the part of the state. State v. Barlish (A.), 421 S.W.2d 558.

(1968) This section does not apply if trial is delayed through no fault of the state. State v. Mace (Mo.), 427 S.W.2d 507.