Opinion ID: 457774
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Redactions to Grand Jury Transcripts

Text: 36 Appellants made a motion in limine seeking production of the redacted portions of the grand jury transcripts. The government represented to the court that the redacted portions contained extraneous materials that did not fall within the definition of a witness' statement under the Jencks Act. The trial court denied the motion without inspecting the redacted portions of the grand jury transcript in camera. 37 The Jencks Act and Fed.R.Crim.P. 26.2 require the government to furnish criminal defendants with all statements of a witness which relate to the subject matter of the witness' trial testimony. 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3500(b) (1982); Fed.R.Crim.P. 26.2(c). The term statement as used in section 3500 refers to: 38 (1) a written statement made by said witness and signed or otherwise adopted or approved by him;(2) a stenographic, mechanical, electrical, or other recording, or a transcription thereof, which is a substantially verbatim recital of an oral statement made by said witness and recorded contemporaneously with the making of such oral statement; or 39 (3) a statement, however taken or recorded, or a transcription thereof, if any, made by said witness to a grand jury. 40 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3500(e); see also Fed.R.Crim.P. 26.2(f). If the government claims that any statement ordered to be produced contains matter which does not relate to the subject matter of the witness' testimony, the statute provides that the court shall order the government to deliver the statement for inspection by the court in camera. 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3500(c); Fed.R.Crim.P. 26.2(c). 41 The government argues that because the redacted portions of the transcripts did not contain statements of a witness to the grand jury, the trial court was not required to conduct an in camera examination. We disagree. Statements made by a witness before a grand jury are covered by the Jencks Act. 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3500(e)(3). Denial of a motion to produce Jencks Act materials is erroneous if based solely on government counsel's assertion that the undisclosed materials do not contain statements covered by the Jencks Act. Ogden v. United States, 303 F.2d 724, 736-37 (9th Cir.1962); accord, United States v. Wables, 731 F.2d 440, 445 (7th Cir.1984); United States v. Strahl, 590 F.2d 10, 14-15 (1st Cir.1978), cert. denied, 440 U.S. 918, 99 S.Ct. 1237, 59 L.Ed.2d 468 (1979); United States v. Conroy, 589 F.2d 1258, 1273 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 831, 100 S.Ct. 60, 62 L.Ed.2d 40 (1979). The trial judge has a duty to administer the statute so as to balance the conflicting interests which it protects--safeguarding government papers from disclosure, and the interests of the accused in having the government produce statements. United States v. Long, 715 F.2d 1364, 1366 (9th Cir.1983). The trial court abused its discretion by failing to conduct an in camera examination of the redacted portions of the grand jury transcripts. 42 Ordinarily, where the trial judge fails to review materials in camera because of a claim by the government that they are not relevant to the subject matter of the witness' trial testimony, we will vacate the judgment and remand the case with directions to the trial court to conduct a belated in camera review to determine whether the error was prejudicial. United States v. Long, 715 F.2d at 1367; United States v. Peters, 625 F.2d 366, 371 (10th Cir.1980). The rationale for remand is that determinations of relevancy and materiality present procedural and evidentiary questions, which traditionally rest within the good sense and experience of the district court judge. See Campbell v. United States, 373 U.S. 487, 493, 83 S.Ct. 1356, 1360, 10 L.Ed.2d 501 (1963). 43 We need not remand in the instant case, however, because the issue before us is not whether the undisclosed portions of the transcript are material and relevant, but whether they contain any words spoken by the witness. The simple task of comparing the unredacted and redacted transcripts does not require an exercise of the exclusive functions of the trial judge in ruling on fact-based evidentiary or procedural matters in the first instance, nor does it entail an understanding of the theory of the prosecution's case or of the potential defenses to the indictment. 44 Our review of the redacted portions of the grand jury transcripts reveals that the government correctly represented that the excised portions contained no words spoken by witnesses. All of the undisclosed material in the grand jury transcripts consisted of innocuous procedural housekeeping announcements by government lawyers. Because appellants received copies of all portions of the grand jury transcripts which contained any words spoken by a witness who testified at trial, the trial court's error in refusing to conduct an in camera examination of the unredacted transcript of the grand jury proceedings was harmless. 45