Opinion ID: 2084941
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Read-Back of Trial Transcript

Text: The defendants argue that the trial justice committed reversible error by permitting the stenographer to read back to the jury significantly more testimony of Samath Me than the jury had requested. Furthermore, defendants find fault in the trial justice's refusal to supplement the read-back with another witness's testimony, at the request of defendants. The defendants argue that the extent of the testimony read back to the jury was not responsive to its inquiry, was lacking in fairness and impartiality, and was prejudicial to defendants. The state contends that it is not apparent from the record exactly which portions of Samath Me's testimony were read back to the jury and that this inadequacy prevents this Court from reviewing this issue in any meaningful way. The state argues, in the alternative, that, if review is possible, defendants have not demonstrated that the read-back was overly broad or, even if it was, how the read-back was prejudicial to them. During deliberations, the jury specifically requested a read-back of Samath Me's testimony relative to when he saw the defendants or defendants with firearms in the hallway, stating that this request was prompted by the amount of time that had passed since the jurors had heard the testimony. The trial justice, according to this request, had the stenographer read back to the jury the testimony of Samath Me concerning the defendant or defendants with firearms in the hallway. From the record, it appears that the trial justice had the stenographer read both the direct and cross-examinations of those portions of Me's testimony, out of fairness. [26] It is unclear, however, which questions and answers the stenographer reread to the jury, the context of those questions and answers, or the extent of the testimony that was reread. The record before us in this regard consists of defendants' objection to the read-back, which recounts those parts of the read-back that counsel argued were nonresponsive to the jurors' inquiry. [27] Specifically, defendants objected to the following testimony being read back to the jury: seeing a Tech 9 in the hallway of Pheurt Phann's residence; knowledge about guns from video games, movies and magazines; the fact that Me wears glasses; Me's unemployment; his admission that he basically has no bearing on times; and information about Rocky Sok. The trial justice overruled the objection, finding that the testimony regarding the weapons and other matters    were all relevant to the issue requested by the jury. The trial justice also denied defendants' request that the court read back to the jury Det. Sweeney's testimony because the jury did not request this testimony.
The decision whether to read back to the jury a particular witness's trial testimonyin response to a jury request is committed to the sound discretion of the trial justice. State v. Dumas, 835 A.2d 438, 443 (R.I.2003) (citing State v. Pierce, 689 A.2d 1030, 1035 (R.I.1997) and State v. Dame, 488 A.2d 418, 422 (R.I. 1985)); see Stone v. United States, 506 F.2d 561, 564 (8th Cir.1974). The trial justice generally should honor such a request, especially when it is practically possible to do so without consuming an inordinate amount of time and without misleading the jury. Dumas, 835 A.2d at 443; see State v. Haigh, 666 A.2d 803, 804 (R.I.1995). A read-back must be fair and impartial and must not invade the province of the jury to determine the facts of the case. Pierce, 689 A.2d at 1035.
Normally, when a case presents a challenge based on testimony read back to the jury per its request, the issue is one of under-inclusion: one party is arguing that the read-back was lacking in impartiality because of an omission or incompleteness. We have held that for a read-back to be fair and impartial, it should include all testimony pertaining to the subject matter of the jury request. Dumas, 835 A.2d at 444; State v. Burke, 529 A.2d 621, 629 (R.I.1987). These decisions commonly have concerned the prejudicial omission of cross-examination testimony. See Dumas, 835 A.2d at 444 ([i]f the testimony elicited on cross-examination goes directly to the subject matter of the questions asked on direct and is crucial to the determination of the defendant's guilt or innocence, then it should be re-read to the jury together with the testimony); Pierce, 689 A.2d at 1035 (trial justice's omission of arguably crucial portions of cross-examination testimony constituted prejudicial error); Dame, 488 A.2d at 423 (trial justice erred in reading to the jury only direct examination testimony when the cross-examination testimony related to the subject matter of the jury question). This case is exceptional in that defendants are arguing that the read-back was over-inclusive and nonresponsivethat the stenographer read too much testimony to the jury. The defendants' argument is doubly unique in its assertion that the trial justice should have balanced this read-back with the testimony of another witness in order to avoid placing undue emphasis on the witness testimony specifically requested by the jury. When a jury makes a request for information, the response should be tailored to the request. Dumas, 835 A.2d at 443. The trial justice has considerable discretion in how to respond to a request. See id. at 443-45. We discern no abuse of discretion on the part of the trial justice or prejudice to defendants in this case. The trial justice instructed the stenographer to read both the direct and cross-examination testimony of Samath Me relative to his observing defendants in the hallway with firearms, a practice clearly ordained, if not demanded, by precedent. Moreover, there never has been a requirement that the trial justice supplement the read-back with other witnesses' testimony. Not only would this go beyond the jury's request, it would demand that the court scour the record of every case to ferret out all the testimony that arguably could make a response seem fair and impartial. This could result in a slippery slope, allowing counsel to request more and more potentially pertinent information for the response. It is also contrary to case law that condones the omission of certain testimony from a read-back if the jury had ample opportunity to hear about it from other witnesses. See Dumas, 835 A.2d at 444 (when, as here, the effect of the cross-examination has not been to undermine the direct testimony, and the jury has heard other evidence on this same subject from other witnesses, then any error by the court in limiting the re-reading only to the direct examination would amount, at worst, to harmless error); State v. Gomes, 604 A.2d 1249, 1259-60 (R.I.1992) (omitted testimony had negligible prejudicial effect because it was presented through other witnesses and the jurors could have requested more information). Admittedly, it is difficult for us to meaningfully review this issue because the record does not reflect exactly what portions of the trial transcript were read back. See State v. Drew, 919 A.2d 397, 403 n. 5 (R.I.2007) (where the transcript did not include the content of the testimony actually read back to the jury, the defendant withdrew his argument because he did not have an adequate record with which to proceed). From the record in this case, however, we know that the examination of Samath Me was relatively haphazard and disorderly. We understand that tangential information is commonly so inextricably interwoven into relevant trial testimony that excising that information would be logistically difficult for the court and might disconcert the jurors. Even so, on the scant record before us, we do not question the reasonableness of the trial justice's decision that the testimony to which defendants objected was relevant to the jurors' request.