Whether the Speedy Trial Act permits a district court to exclude time from the 70-day trial calculation without making explicit on-the-record findings when a mistrial is declared due to juror illness

No question identified. : Case: 24-1224 Document: 57 Filed: 02/13/2025 Pages: 8 NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION To be cited only in accordance with FED. R. App. P. 32.1 United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit Chicago, Illinois 60604 Submitted February 13, 2025" Decided February 13, 2025 Before FRANK H. EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge AMY J. ST. EVE, Circuit Judge JOHN Z. LEE, Circuit Judge No. 24-1224 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Appeal from the United States District Plaintiff-Appellee, Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. v. No. 1:10-CR-00376(1) THOMAS J. ZAJAC, Matthew F. Kennelly, Judge. ORDER Thomas Zajac, a federal prisoner, was convicted by a jury of bombing a train station and using the mail to threaten additional bombings. He now appeals, asserting a host of errors, ranging from violations of his right to a speedy trial to errors in "We have agreed to decide the case without oral argument because the briefs and record adequately present the facts and legal arguments, and oral argument would not significantly aid the court. FED. R. APP. P. 34(a)(2)(C). Case: 24-1224 Document: 57 Filed: 02/13/2025 Pages: 8 No. 24-1224 Page 2 evidentiary rulings, faulty jury instructions, and insufficient evidence to convict. We affirm. In September 2006, a pipe bomb exploded inside a trash can in the waiting room of a Metra station in Hinsdale, Illinois. One month later, the Chief of the Hinsdale Police Department received a letter that claimed credit for the pipe bomb, citing retribution for misconduct by the Hinsdale police and threatening future deadlier bombs. The letter contained information about certain components in the bomb that were not public knowledge. That same month, a pipe bomb exploded in a public library in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Chief of the Salt Lake City Police Department received a letter similar in content to the one sent to the Hinsdale police. A forensic analysis of the letters and bombs led to Zajac becoming a suspect in both bombings. One motivation for the bombings appears to have been the 2005 arrest of Zajac’s son, who then was suffering from a medical crisis. A search of Zajac’s apartment turned up other evidence tying him to the bombings. Zajac was then indicted in both the District of Utah and the Northern District of Illinois. In 2010 he was convicted in the Utah case and ultimately sentenced to 258 months’ imprisonment. The Illinois case, however, stalled. A succession of attorneys appointed to represent Zajac sought to withdraw because of conflicts with him, leading him to proceed pro se in 2017. In the ensuing years, the district court resolved hundreds of pretrial motions, and the COVID-19 pandemic delayed matters further. The Illinois case finally went to trial in January 2023. Almost at the outset, the district court declared a mistrial after two jurors fell sick—one from COVID-19—and others asked to be excused based on fear of infection. Zajac did not object to excusing the jurors or declaring a mistrial. With the parties’ agreement, the court rescheduled the trial to begin September 5 and to last three weeks. The court ordered the intervening time excluded from the calculation of the 70-day speedy trial period. 18 U.S.C. § 3161(h)(7)(A), (B)(iv). The court, however, did not put on the record any findings regarding the excluded time. A few weeks after the mistrial, Zajac moved to continue the trial based on his paralegal’s schedule. The court agreed to move up the starting date a week, to August 29, 2023. Case: 24-1224 Document: 57 Filed: 02/13/2025 Pages: 8 No. 24-1224 Page 3 In April 2023, Zajac moved under the Speedy Trial Act to dismiss the indictment based on the new trial’s delayed start, adding that impermissible considerations— namely, the court’s congested calendar— dictated its rulings on the mistrial and its exclusions of time under the Speedy Trial Act. The court denied the motion. The court explained that the mistrial stemmed from juror illnesses and