Court Opinion

ID: 9707568
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 02:15:51.990137+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:35.243429
License: Public Domain

LOUIS J. CECI, J.
(concurring). I concur in the opinion of the court.
The trial courts of this state are overburdened to a degree that requires no documentation by this writer. In a valiant attempt to expedite the matters before them, the trial courts have permitted the recording of voir dire and closing arguments to be solely the option of trial counsel. This, of course, permits the court’s stenographic reporter to catch up on matters that may be pending, but it puts the trial judge in an unenviable position. Appellate courts cannot review that which is not submitted. We do not have a transcript of the voir dire before us; thus, we render our opinion without the benefit of knowing what questions were asked by counsel and what the responses to those questions were by the jurors in this case.
I would require all trial courts of this state to record the entire voir dire and closing arguments. This would, in my view, protect the integrity of the trial process.