Opinion ID: 1829968
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Transcript of Hearings On Pre-Trial Motions

Text: On June 16, 1987, Hansen moved the Court for an order requiring the court reporter to transcribe the proceedings on the various pre-trial motions. He sought particularly the testimony of anticipated trial witnesses and asked that he might have such in time that he might effectively use it in trial preparation. The Court denied the motion, stating that the court reporter's time was so occupied with other duties that Hansen's request, if honored, would impose a substantial and unreasonable burden. On the other hand, the Court noted that the reporter used a backup taping system and that this whole set of hearings has been done by cassette. The Court advised counsel that it would make the tapes available to them and would enter an order to allow you to tape the tapes and listen to them ... all of it ... that will give you the entire transcript, the truth of the matter is, if you want it. The record reflects an agreement to give the tapes to Hansen's lawyers on Wednesday afternoon, September 16, 1987, and that they would be returned to the Court on Friday of that same week. In Britt v. North Carolina, 404 U.S. 226, 92 S.Ct. 431, 30 L.Ed.2d 400 (1971), the Supreme Court read the Constitution to require that, upon request, the state must furnish an indigent defendant a transcript of prior proceedings when that transcript is needed for an effective defense or appeal. Britt, 404 U.S. at 227, 92 S.Ct. at 433, 30 L.Ed.2d at 403. This view is a function of the accused's right to the equal protection of the laws. See also, Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 822 n. 8, 97 S.Ct. 1491, 1495 n. 8, 52 L.Ed.2d 72, 79 n. 8 (1977); San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 1, 21, 93 S.Ct. 1278, 1290, 36 L.Ed.2d 16, 35-36 (1973). Need is the key, and Britt identifies two factors as bearing on need: (1) the value of the transcript to the defendant in connection with the appeal or trial for which it is sought, and (2) the availability of alternative devices that would fulfill the same functions as a transcript. Britt, 404 U.S. at 227, 92 S.Ct. at 434, 30 L.Ed.2d at 403-04. Of late, we have made it clear that we take seriously both Britt and the principle it expounds. Lewis v. State, 580 So.2d 1279, 1285 (Miss. 1991); Fielder v. State, 569 So.2d 1170, 1172-73 (Miss. 1990); see also, Ruffin v. State, 481 So.2d 312, 315 (Miss. 1985). The indigent defendant's Britt right to a free transcript of prior proceedings has been held to include preliminary hearings in some jurisdictions, although this Court has never done so. The Supreme Court of Colorado has written: A preliminary hearing transcript can be of great value to a defendant at trial. It is a vital impeachment tool for use in cross-examination of the State's witnesses and for trial preparation in general. [citations omitted] As a practical matter, the transcript must be available to defense counsel prior to the trial if it is to be useful as an impeachment and trial preparation tool. [citations omitted] The defendant's lawyer should not be forced to rely on his memory of the preliminary hearing, or notes prepared at the hearing, to establish inconsistencies between testimony at the hearing and at trial. [citations omitted] Providing the preliminary hearing transcript for the first time at trial is thus not an adequate alternative to providing the transcript before the trial. [citations omitted] Gonzales v. District Court In and For The County of Weld, 198 Colo. 505, 602 P.2d 857, 858 (1979). The Gonzales Court limited its holding to those cases in which the defendant pleaded not guilty and there was a reasonable assurance the state's witnesses at the preliminary hearing would also testify at trial. See also, United States ex rel. Moore v. People of Illinois, 577 F.2d 411 (7th Cir.1978) (error in failure to provide transcript of the preliminary hearing in which an allegedly suggestive confrontation between rape victim and defendant occurred, but error found harmless beyond a reasonable doubt); McMillion v. State, 742 P.2d 1158 (Okla. Crim. App. 1987) (denial of a free transcript of the preliminary hearing to an indigent represented a substantial violation of a constitutional right.) See also, Graham v. State, 757 S.W.2d 538, 541 (Ark. 1988); Gardner v. State, 754 S.W.2d 518, 524 (Ark. 1988); State v. Lewis, 215 N.W.2d 293, 295 (Iowa 1974); Hawkins v. State, 486 P.2d 743 (Okla. Crim. App. 1971); People v. Montgomery, 18 N.Y.2d 993, 224 N.E.2d 730, 278 N.Y.S.2d 226 (1966). All of this would seem to call into serious question this Court's decision in McHale v. State, 284 So.2d 42 (Miss. 1973), wherein we upheld a circuit court's denial of an indigent's request for a transcript of a preliminary hearing. On the other hand, we find dispositive today the fact that the Circuit Court ordered the tapes of the hearing provided to defense counsel, and the record reflects arrangements wherein the tapes were, in fact, made available. We hold that the court reporter's tapes are the substantial equivalent of the transcript and satisfy Britt's articulation of the accused's entitlement in the premises. See also, Lewis v. State, 580 So.2d 1279, 1285 (Miss. 1991).