Court Opinion

ID: 9455764
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:32:28.570596+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:43.529373
License: Public Domain

ANDERSON, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
I concur in the result. In my opinion, Judge Port was correct in holding that the transcript of this suppression hearing was within the class of “instruments needed” by the accused in preparation for his trial in the light of United States ex rel. Wilson v. McMann, 408 F. 2d 896 (2 Cir. 1969); and it was error for the trial judge to have refused to accede to the defendant’s request for it.
General confusion ensued at the point in the trial when the suppression issue and the question of adjournment to call the witness Moskowitz arose, illustrating the need for prior access to such transcripts under circumstances like those in Cadogan’s case. Throughout the discussion between the court and counsel concerning Moskowitz’s possible testimony, no one knew what the transcript actually contained; and the trial judge could not and did not know that his suppression hearing testimony had in fact been brief and totally corroborative.
When a constitutional error is shown on collateral attack, the burden rests on the State to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused was in no way *169prejudiced by it. Harrington v. California, 395 U.S. 250, 89 S.Ct. 1726, 23 L.Ed.2d 284 (1969); Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967); United States ex rel. Joseph v. LaVallee, 415 F.2d 150 (2 Cir. 1969). By the time of the habeas corpus hearing, the transcript had been made available to the court and the parties. It included little more than the record of attempts to learn the identity of the undercover agent Modesto before trial and disclosed nothing which would have been of any conceivable aid to the defense. Even with it, counsel would have faced the tactical decision of whether or not to call Moskowitz solely for the purpose of a fishing expedition, which he elected not to do. As Judge Hays has pointed out, nothing in the transcript would have helped the defense impeach the credibility of the policemen who testified at trial; and the petitioner has not suggested any other way in which the denial of the transcript could have hampered the effectiveness of his defense. In view of the overwhelming evidence of Cadogan’s guilt, it is clear that the error in the denial of his production motion was harmless.