Opinion ID: 223528
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Providing Jury with Partial Transcripts

Text: During its deliberations, the jury requested transcripts of Orlando Rivera's testimony from several specific witnesses on particular days. Juarez objected. He argued that the requested transcripts unduly highlight some evidence that was brought in about him, and that the court should provide the full transcript of cross-examination and direct testimony of those witnesses after reading back the full transcripts in open court. The court overruled Juarez's objection and provided the jurors the specific portions of the transcripts they requested along with the following instruction: You must ... weigh all the trial evidence and not just one particular portion of the trial. Also please note that each of the witnesses' direct testimony you have requested was also cross-examined by the defense. The entire testimony of each witness you have identified can be made available to you at your written request. Juarez, joined by each of his co-defendants, appeals this decision. Susinka writes separately to supplement the arguments raised by Juarez in his brief. We review a district court's response to a jury question for abuse of discretion. United States v. Danford, 435 F.3d 682, 687 (7th Cir.2006). Here again, we find no abuse of discretion. The defendants argue that the court should have read aloud in open court all of the testimony from each witness in question, including cross-examination, and erred in sending to the jury room only the portions of the testimony that the jury requested. Juarez bases his argument on the possibility that the jury might have placed undue emphasis on a small part of the testimony and failed to view the evidence as a whole. Susinka is a bit more specific, arguing that one of the requested witnesses was the only witness to link him to the February 23, 2002 shooting, so that permitting the jury to be exposed to the transcript of his direct examination without cross-examination must have been unduly prejudicial. These arguments are speculative at best, and the defendants' concerns were addressed effectively by the court's instruction that the jury consider all the evidence, not just one portion of the trial. We assume that the jury followed the instructions it was given. See United States v. Zahursky, 580 F.3d 515, 525-26 (7th Cir.2009); United States v. Ochoa-Zarate, 540 F.3d 613, 620 (7th Cir.2008). This was a lengthy trial, followed by lengthy deliberations. A hard-working jury, sifting through memories and notes about weeks of evidence, asked for specific portions of the evidence. Responding to the request as defendants now argue, by forcing jurors, judge, counsel, and defendants to listen to a deadly recitation of days of testimony that the jury did not ask for or need, would have bordered on cruelty. The court properly exercised its discretion by giving the jury exactly what it said it needed, with appropriate cautions. The court did so after weighing the unlikely possibility that the jury might improperly overemphasize some testimony (in spite of the court's cautionary instruction) with the interest of promoting efficient jury deliberations and not unnecessarily adding to the burden of an already heavily burdened jury. We find no abuse of discretion.