Opinion ID: 2315948
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: Use of the Videotape of Dr. Eshkenazi

Text: Defendant contends that he was denied due process of law when he was forced to use at the resentencing proceeding a five-year-old videotape of testimony of a psychiatric expert witness made during the original sentencing proceeding. According to defendant, the denial of public funds for a psychiatric expert witness before the trial in 1983 denied him the essentials of a minimally-adequate defense at the resentencing proceeding in 1989. The mere statement of that contention manifests its dubious credibility. The court's refusal to provide public funds for an expert witness at the time of Biegenwald's trial was not clearly erroneous. There was no showing that defendant was indigent, a prerequisite to any entitlement to public funds for legal services. Moreover, the denial of public funds is irrelevant on the issue of due process because defendant had the benefit of psychiatric testimony from an expert witness. We are unmoved by defendant's contention that the denial of public funds before his trial in 1983 forced defense counsel into a position where he either had to rely on a videotape or pay for an expert out of his own pocket during the new sentencing proceeding in 1989.