Court Opinion

ID: 9462609
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:45:23.051789+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:40.555226
License: Public Domain

LAY, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
I concur in Judge Stephenson’s thorough opinion. However, I feel the time has come for district courts to adopt local rules requiring the government to record grand jury testimony of law enforcement personnel. Although there may be no constitutional or statutory requirement that grand jury testimony be recorded, nonetheless this court has cautioned that the better practice is to record and transcribe the minutes of *1199all proceedings of the grand jury which are accusatorial in nature. See United States v. Arradondo, 483 F.2d 980 (8th Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 415 U.S. 924, 94 S.Ct. 1428, 39 L.Ed.2d 480 (1974). As Judge Bright there stated:
We note that failure of prosecutors to record significant testimony before the grand jury serves to thwart the right of the defendant under a showing of “particularized need” . ... to obtain grand jury testimony of a trial witness.
483 F.2d at 985 n. 4.
Since we have not previously made it a court rule to record grand jury testimony, I do not vote for reversal here. However, I think that the time for that rule has arrived.