Opinion ID: 1172674
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 28

Heading: sufficiency of the record for appellate review

Text: (8) Whether there is before this court a record of sufficient completeness for adequate appellate review of the issues presented in Appellant's appeal. Appellant argues there is not a record of sufficient completeness for adequate review of his conviction and sentence of death and that therefore he is entitled to a new trial. He takes issue with the absence of a portion of the CrR 3.5 pretrial hearing verbatim report of proceedings involving the July 10, 1992 testimony of one of the Palm Springs detectives who interrogated him. He concludes that because this portion of the record (which addresses his Miranda warnings) is missing, appellate counsel is unable to effectively assign and argue error on appeal, denying him the right to effective assistance of counsel and due process. He also concludes that the missing transcript prevents this court from properly considering his arguments on appeal relating to his Miranda warnings, ER 404(b) evidence, and RCW 9.73. This claim is without merit. Due Process requires that a record of sufficient completeness be provided for appellate review of the errors raised by a criminal defendant. [162] RCW 10.95.100 provides that a death sentence must be reviewed by this court on the record. RAP 9.1(a) provides that the record on review may consist of (1) a report of proceedings, (2) clerks papers, (3) exhibits, and (4) a certified record of administrative adjudicative proceedings. RAP 9.1(b) provides that the report of proceedings may take the form of a `verbatim report of proceedings'..., a `narrative report of proceedings'..., or an `agreed report of proceedings'.... And RAP 9.3 authorizes use of a narrative report of proceedings if the court reporter's notes are lost. There is no verbatim report of proceedings for the portion of the CrR 3.5 pretrial hearing held on July 10, 1992 because the court reporter was unable to find the notes for that day. As a result, this court directed the trial court to settle all issues regarding the completion of the record for review in this case. The trial court accordingly prepared from its notes taken at the July 10, 1992 hearing a Supplementation of Report of Proceeding. This provided a record of sufficient completeness for adequate review of the issues raised by Appellant. The trial court's Supplementation of Report of Proceedings, based upon contemporaneous notes taken by the court on July 10, 1992, constitutes a narrative report of proceedings for that portion of the hearing sufficient to make the record complete. Appellant's assertion that the trial court's narrative report is conclusory at best on the issue of Miranda warnings is rebutted by the fact that, along with the trial court's narrative report, the record on review also contains the tape recordings of Appellant's statements to the Palm Springs Police which included Miranda warnings, [163] as well as the trial court's oral ruling on the issues of Miranda warnings and RCW 9.73. [164] Additionally, there are verbatim reports of all other proceedings, including the testimony of Ms. Schnell, Ms. West and Ms. Gray. We reject Appellant's claim that the record is not sufficiently complete for review of the issues in this case.