Opinion ID: 853330
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: An Imperfect But Sufficient Record

Text: Ben-Yisrayl argues vigorously that errors and omissions in the record entitle him to a new trial. (Appellant's Br. at 58.) After careful scrutiny of the record, we disagree. Background. The trial record in this case has been problematic from the start. The court reporter abandoned the project of transcribing her stenographic discs before the work was halfway done, and another reporter took over the job. (P-C.R. at 2705-06.) The new reporter encountered difficulty deciphering many passages, and a record reconstruction specialist from Washington State stepped in to assist. ( Id. ) Other scopists and proofreaders also helped, using both the discs and audiotapes of the trial. (P-C.R. Supp. at 8, 11, 13, 22, 31.) Because of the transcription problems, we granted Ben-Yisrayl five extensions of time to file a record for appeal. (P-C.R. at 2684, 2693, 2702, 2710, 2718.) On August 25, 1994, when the record had finally been compiled, Ben-Yisrayl filed a motion asking this Court for a new trial based on its remaining gaps and errors. Ben-Yisrayl, 690 N.E.2d at 1146. We denied the motion. Id. Although Ind. Crim. Rule 5 calls for reporting all oral evidence and testimony given in all cases and hearings, including both questions and answers, all rulings of the judge in respect to the admission and rejection of evidence and objections thereto, and any other oral matters occurring during the hearing in any proceeding, Ind. Appellate Rule 7.2(C)(2) says: Incompleteness or inadequacy of the record shall not constitute a ground for dismissal of the appeal or preclude review on the merits. On October 6, 1994, we issued the following order to supplement the record in accordance with App. R. 7.2(C): The trial court judge, deputy prosecutor and defense counsel who participated in Appellant's trial in this cause shall, to the best of their abilities, reconstruct the actual testimony or arguments not accurately depicted in the trial transcript filed in this Court. To the extent that such testimony cannot be reconstructed, the trial court judge, deputy prosecutor and defense counsel shall report in writing the thrust of the inaccurately transcribed testimony or arguments to the best of their recollection. To the extent that their memories of the actual testimony or arguments are inadequate to reconstruct or outline the testimony or arguments, the trial judge, deputy prosecutor and defense counsel shall report in writing to this Court whether such testimony or arguments raise any material issue or relate to any error raised in Appellant's motion to correct errors. Ben-Yisrayl, 690 N.E.2d at 1146 (quoting Indiana Supreme Court Order dated Oct. 6, 1994). The results were due to us by February 1, 1995. Id. We stayed briefing in the interim. Id. The trial judge, deputy prosecutor, and trial defense attorneys met as ordered to fill in the holes in the record. (P-C.R. at 358-416.) After nearly four days going over the individual errors and omissions cited by appellate counsel, the State and defense each briefed the few passages on which they could not reach consensus. ( Id., P-C.R. at 2827, 2840.) The judge reviewed the briefs and adopted the State's version of three passages, found two issues duplicative of issues previously briefed, and deemed the final passage immaterial. (P-C.R. Supp. at 36-37.) Ben-Yisrayl's appellate counsel did not report any remaining record deficiencies to us as our order required. Nonetheless, Ben-Yisrayl argued on appeal that the record of the pretrial hearing and voir dire was inadequate to permit review of the change of venue issue. Ben-Yisrayl, 690 N.E.2d at 1147 n. 14. Although the claim was forfeited, we addressed it and determined that the flaws in the record could not have been material to the issue of the trial venue. Id. at n. 14. The Post-Conviction Claim. Ben-Yisrayl now points out numerous additional errors and omissions in the record that appellate counsel failed to identify. He argues that his appellate counsel was ineffective in waiving review of the overall adequacy of the record. [16] He also argues that the flaws in the record denied him due process and the right to meaningful appellate and collateral review. (Appellant's Br. at 58.) In a nutshell, he asks us to find that indecipherable portions of the record raise material issues, and therefore to grant him a new trial without requiring him to make specific allegations of error. See Ben-Yisrayl, 690 N.E.2d at 1147 n. 14. The State does not deny that a transcript may sometimes be so deficient as to justify a new trial, but maintains that the post-conviction court correctly concluded that the record as supplemented in this case is adequate. (Appellee's Br. at 18, P-C.R. at 1083-84.) See Gallagher v. State, 274 Ind. 235, 410 N.E.2d 1290, 1292 (1980) ([A] new trial is an appropriate remedy where there is no usable transcript available for appeal.) (emphasis added). See also State v. Perry, 136 Wis.2d 92, 401 N.W.2d 748, 752 (1987) (retrial may be required in the event that the transcript is so deficient that there cannot be a meaningful appeal but not all deficiencies in the record nor all inaccuracies require a new trial.). We have pored over this record in detail, bearing in mind that a man's life is at stake. Two law clerks have each read all five thousand pages of the trial record. This author has read hundreds of pages of transcript, focusing especially on pages identified by Ben-Yisrayl and by the law clerks as particularly problematic. Other members of the Court have seen transcript as part of their review of the case. Ben-Yisrayl presented the post-conviction court with a sixty-one page list of errors that he claims were not addressed on direct appeal. (P-C.R. at 461-523.) Nearly twenty-two pages cover the change of venue hearing, which (as noted above) was in fact addressed on direct appeal. Ben-Yisrayl, 690 N.E.2d at 1147 n. 14, (P-C.R. at 489-510). A fair number of the errors listed on the remaining pages are trivial. For example, many (including one entire page of the list, (P-C.R. at 483)) are simple misspellings, such as ajoining, (P-C.R. at 484), and imunity, (P-C.R. at 487). [17] Others, however, are more substantial. We have grouped the latter into three categories, and address each in turn. Unrecorded Bench Conferences. Most of the bench conferences during trial were not recorded. ( See, e.g., T.R. at 2093, 2668, 3361, 4322.) This omission would certainly make it unreasonable to require Ben-Yisrayl to show that any particular allegation of error was preserved by objection and proper argument, and we do not do so. It is not unreasonable, however, to require Ben-Yisrayl to articulate some plausible way in which he was harmed by the lack of record of bench conferences. See, e.g., Jones v. District Court, 780 P.2d 526, 529-30 n. 7 (Colo.1989) (mandamus action; state law and rules of court required a record of bench conferences but any failure to record all trial proceedings is subject to fact-specific harmless error analysis). Here, the issue that triggered each bench conference can be ascertained from the record. We know when objections occurred, and how the court ruled. We also consider the fact that one of Ben-Yisrayl's appellate attorneys served as co-counsel at trial, and was presumably familiar with the issues raised and argued in sidebars. See Hardy v. United States, 375 U.S. 277, 84 S.Ct. 424, 11 L.Ed.2d 331 (1964) (holding that court-appointed trial counsel who also represents the indigent defendant on appeal gets at least the transcript relevant to the points of error assigned; if new counsel represents the indigent on appeal, the entire transcript is required). The lack of bench conference records certainly suggests that a reviewing court should take an appropriately liberal approach to issues that might otherwise be considered waived at trial for lack of either objection or argument. It also justifies giving Ben-Yisrayl the benefit of the doubt in speculating about what may have been discussed during any of the unrecorded sidebars. It does not, however, relieve Ben-Yisrayl entirely of his obligation to make issue-specific claims of error. See App. R. 8.3(A)(7). The Suppression Hearing. By brief, (T.R. at 528, 536), and at a pretrial hearing, (T.R. 2nd Supp. at 188, 328), Ben-Yisrayl argued that his confessions should be suppressed because his arrest was not supported by probable cause. The court rejected this argument. Ben-Yisrayl, 690 N.E.2d at 1152. On direct appeal Ben-Yisrayl again claimed that his confessions were the fruit of an illegal arrest. Id. He did not argue that the gaps in the record precluded meaningful review of this claim. We addressed the issue on the merits and rejected his argument. Id. In his post-conviction claim, Ben-Yisrayl points to numerous undecipherables in the 158-page suppression hearing transcript in partial support of his overall claim that the trial record is materially deficient. (T.R. 2nd Supp. at 188-346; P-C.R. at 512-23.) We implicitly rejected this argument on direct appeal when we considered and rejected his suppression argument on the merits. [18] We have revisited the suppression hearing record in light of Ben-Yisrayl's lengthy post-conviction list of record errors. Many of the undecipherables are on topics that are extraneous, such as preliminaries on the hearing mechanics, ( see, e.g., P-C.R. 2nd Supp. at 189-90), formalities preceding summary arguments, ( see, e.g., id. at 305, 330), an objection by the State that was overruled, ( see id. at 250-51), and the court's explanation for telling defense counsel to rephrase a leading question ( see id. at 252). Others are responses to questions, where a follow-up question makes clear what the substance of the response was. [19] ( See, e.g., id. at 234-35, 237-40, 247-48, 254-55, 260, 264, 268, 282.) Although there are passages that contain more serious flaws, we again conclude that these gaps, viewed in an overall context, are not severe enough to relieve Ben-Yisrayl of his burden of making specific claims of error. Based on the state of the record we would not penalize him by treating any substantive suppression arguments as waived for failure to cite where the issue was raised and preserved at trial. The flaws in the record are not material, however, and we stand by our previous implicit conclusion that the record regarding the suppression claim is sufficient. Other Miscellaneous Errors and Omissions. A number of brief passages during voir dire and witness testimony contain incoherent words or phrases. Some of these problems were resolved during the reconstruction meetings, in which both of Ben-Yisrayl's trial attorneys actively participated. (P-C.R. at 358-414.) At post-conviction, Ben-Yisrayl points to additional record deficiencies that appellate counsel failed to identify, plus a few that the reconstruction meetings failed to resolve. [20] (P-C.R. at 461-88.) Each entry on Ben-Yisrayl's errata list must be viewed in the context of the surrounding record. In each instance the subject matter of the discussion is sufficiently obvious from the record preceding and following the cited deficiency to allow specific claims of error. Again, we find no material defect(s) in the record. Summary. Trial records are rarely if ever perfect, and this record is far from the best. We conclude, however, that none of the errors and omissions raise material issues. Ben-Yisrayl's appellate counsel was therefore not ineffective for failing to challenge the overall sufficiency of the record, and Ben-Yisrayl has received due process, including meaningful appellate and collateral review.