> our endless appeal system

Mr Naylor's clearly never got involved with Italian justice, where the average criminal trial takes 4 and a half years as it goes through 3 judgement levels (the first sentence alone is likely to take more than a year). By law, a "reasonable" process is expected to take up to 6 years.

As far as I can see, most criminal cases in the US are completed in less than a year.

Yes and no. It reeeally depends on the nature/scale of the crime and the kind of defense they can mount (I.e. can they afford excellent lawyers/have deep pockets).