Court Opinion

ID: 9794814
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:12:14.773272+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:20:52.353705
License: Public Domain

NIX, Judge
(dissenting):
I respectfully dissent to the opinion of Judges Brett and Bussey, as far as it relates to Syllabus Five and Six. In the instant case, the defense counsel brought to court a tape recorder to record the testimony of various witnesses. The recording machine was to be used for his own benefit and not as an official record. The Assistant District Attorney objected to the defense counsel recording the testimony with his own machine and for his own benefit. The trial judge sustained the objection. The question of whether or not defense counsel was entitled to use the machine is before us for the first time.
Judges Brett and Bussey, in their opinion, hold it to be a privilege and not a right, and should be left to the discretion of the court. This holding is not supported by any authority or precedent of law. However, they say in their opinion:
“Concerning petitioner’s complaint that he was not permitted to record the testimony for his own use, we actually see little harm which would result therefrom, but consider the use of an electronic recording device without a stenographer, to be left to the discretion of the magistrate.”
Your writer is of the opinion that counsel’s use of a recording machine in the courtroom is a right just the same as taking notes or having your own secretary take down the testimony at a trial where counsel is involved, especially where they have no official status, but is for counsel’s own benefit.
This writer is further bewildered as to why a recording device used by defendant must be supplemented by a stenographer. After all, it’s for his own use and benefit only, and has no official status. Why should he be required to have a stenographer present during the hearing? It would be necessary to take the stenographer from the office or hire one to sit and watch the machine work.
Modern day recording devices are quite inconspicuous and in no way or manner interfere with the orderly process of a hearing. As a matter of fact, the official reporters, in most instances, use a recording device. I could understand such a holding 40 years ago, but with modern scientific development creating a pushbutton society, recording devices no longer attract attention or arouse the curiosity of witnesses to *719the extent of interfering with the decorum of the court.
Since I960, Alaska has relied on electronic recordings to provide all records of proceedings in its trial courts. Now, the State of Illinois, is experimenting with an even more accurate method of recording court proceedings in the absence of a court reporter — Video-taping.
Video-taping system can be operated unobtrusively and does not require an elaborate studio setup in the courtroom. Two cameras, about the size of a volume of American Jurisprudence, can be hidden completely, are placed on the wall out of the line of vision of spectators, and these cameras tape the entire procedure and it is all operated and monitored from a trial vision control console about four feet square. American Bar Journal, Vol. 55, May, 1969, at page 457. Judge William M. Madden, who conducted the first court with videotaping, said:
“There has been some comment that a videotape record is ‘too good’. For better or for worse, however, the record is preserved in such a way as to defy misinterpretation of question, response, comment or demonstration. Comments or gestures pregnant with meaning are preserved intact for review and are not aborted by reducing them to sterile, typewritten testimony in a report of proceedings.”
This, of course, has no bearing upon the question herein discussed, but only recited for the purpose of emphasizing the progress being made in preserving trial proceedings.
I can readily understand how it could be very beneficial to counsel to record the testimony at a preliminary hearing, and play it over from time to time, and be thoroughly familiar with said recording when it comes time for trial, thereby being better prepared to defend his client’s rights.
The majority opinion says it’s a privilege and not a right and leaves it to the discretion of the court. That was done in the instant case and defense counsel was denied the opportunity of making his own recording. The majority opinion admitted no harm would come of it — .
Your writer says since no harm could come of it, and since it has no official status, and since it does not interfere with the decorum of the hearing, and since it would be of much help to the defendant and for his own use and benefit only, it should be permitted as a matter of right.