Opinion ID: 402091
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: failure to transcribe hearing

Text: 35 Claiming to be deprived of procedural due process, Adkins next assails the State's failure to produce a transcript of the hearing at which the first jury was discharged. Prejudice is noted in his inability to prove his version of these events. While we may assume the absence of sharp adherence to the West Virginia law and we may agree that Adkins was hindered by the absence of a transcript, we fail to grasp any basis for Federal habeas relief in this claim. Quite simply, we do not find the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to demand transcription of all State criminal proceedings. 36 In this collateral attack on Adkins' conviction, an evidentiary hearing was held before the Magistrate to resolve the factual disputes attending this hearing. Both parties faced the task of proving their contentions without the aid of a transcript. The determinations resulting from that hearing and adopted by the District Court are binding on this Court unless clearly erroneous. No such error appearing, we accept those findings for resolution of Adkins' double jeopardy insistence. 37 With no substance evident in the errors assigned by either party, the judgment on appeal is 38 Affirmed.