Opinion ID: 377910
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Testimony Read Back to Jury

Text: 50 During their deliberations, the jury requested that some testimony be reread to them. The district court reread the direct testimony of one witness and was about to go on to the testimony of the next witness when defense counsel reminded him to include the first witness' cross-examination (A3894). The judge immediately corrected his oversight, and no objection was made by counsel. Appellants' claim now that this constituted plain error is clearly frivolous. 51 In addition, appellants point out that some requested testimony was never read back to the jury. This, as well, was not an abuse of discretion. Only after the rereading had apparently been concluded and the jury had again been excused did defense counsel claim that two additional questions and answers were within the jury's request (A3991-92); no objection had previously been made to the portions selected for rereading. Moreover, the district court properly recognized that the two questions and answers were merely cumulative of other testimony of the same witness that had been read back. Therefore, there was no error in the refusal to recall the jury for a rereading of two more questions and answers.