Opinion ID: 5797
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Value of Transcript

Text: If we apply Britt's requirements to the facts of the present case, the logic underlying the Britt test breaks down. For example, in the case of a mistrial and subsequent trial on the same charge, the Supreme Court held that the first Britt requirement concerning the value of the transcript to a defendant should be assumed. Britt, 404 U.S. at 228. Their rationale was that a mistrial becomes, essentially, a dry run of the second prosecution. In that context, the transcript is invaluable in preparing for the second trial. When we review the facts of a case where the subsequent proceedings involve a different charge, this automatic assumption is no longer sound. In the present case, only three of the 29 witnesses that testified for the State in the Weather's capital murder case also testified in the rape trial. Pat Rivers, the victim in the rape case, gave only limited testimony in the murder trial. 7 Specifically, her testimony was limited to her description of being pulled over by Fisher flashing his headlights from his automobile. Rivers did not testify to having been raped by Fisher. At the rape trial, however, Rivers testified unequivocally that Fisher raped her. This difference in testimony is significant in that the requested transcript would not have enabled Fisher to impeach Rivers in the rape trial regarding the rape itself because her testimony regarding the rape was being offered for the first time. There is little doubt that River's testimony in the murder trials was of minor importance. Fisher's own attorneys admitted at the state court hearing on the request for the transcript that they knew little about the rape. These attorneys, who had represented Fisher at the murder trials, further testified that no evidence of the rape was introduced in either of Fisher's murder trials. Thus, the transcript of Rivers' testimony would have been of little value to Fisher in the rape trial, despite the fact that River was now the State's main witness. The second common witness, Detective House, testified at the murder trial about his participation in a decoy operation, which resulted in the arrest of Fisher four months after the rape of Rivers. Even if Fisher had been able to test House's testimony in the rape trial using the requested transcript, it would have only been as to a minor point surrounding the arrest and not the rape itself. The third common witness, Marsha Pigott, testified that Fisher had pulled her over by flashing his headlights and told her that 8 her license plate tag was falling off. She admitted to giving inconsistent prior testimony as to Fisher's description; therefore, impeachment would have added little since [Pigott] admitted that [her] earlier testimony may have differed. United States v. Smith, 605 F.2d 839, 845 (5th Cir. 1979). Indeed, Pigott was in fact impeached not only in both murder trials but also in the rape trial. In our view, the importance of a prior trial transcript on a different charge is likely to be minimal. The limited testimony of the three common witnesses in this case played a minor role in the murder trials and did not vary much from trial to trial. As a result, we cannot infer that the requested transcript was constitutionally indispensable to Fisher's defense, especially in light of the fact that the State furnished him with a transcript of the first murder trial. Consequently, we conclude that the assumption that a requested transcript of a prior proceeding is automatically valuable does not extend beyond the narrow confines of Britt. We do not claim that a free transcript of the prior proceeding could not have been helpful to Fisher in some way. Nonetheless, we do not feel it is constitutionally required when the preceding trial was for a different offense involving a different victim at a different time.