Court Opinion

ID: 9742588
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:16:27.69943+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:33.937917
License: Public Domain

RAWLINGS, Justice
(dissenting).
I adopt the rationale upon which McCormick, J., concurs specially and supportive cited authorities, but respectfully submit trial court’s denial of defendant’s request that arguments to the jury be reported here alone constituted reversible error.
Surely an improvised Bill of Exceptions (Code Chapter 786) regarding isolated portions of arguments to a jury is at best a poor substitute for a transcript thereof. Stated otherwise, an alternative Bill of Exceptions is seldom, if ever, equivalent to a complete transcript. By the same token it is to me evident the voicing of objections to some fractional part of such arguments, absent any record, is usually an exercise in futility.
Bell v. Wainwright, 299 F.Supp. 521 (N.D.Fla.1969) deals with a problem peculiarly akin to that here posed. In resolving the issue presented in Bell the Court aptly stated at 523:
“For the purposes of an appeal the right to have a full adequate record is an absolute in the case of an indigent defendant as it is in the case of a defend*415ant who can afford to purchase the transcript.
“The present case is readily distinguishable from the case of Mack v. Walker, S Cir, 372 F.2d 170 (1966). In the Mack case the petitioners simply objected to the fact that they were not given a verbatim transcript of the trial proceedings, without showing that such a transcript was necessary for their appeal. In the present case the First District Court of Appeal of Florida concedes that:
“ ‘ * * * the full impact of alleged remarks of counsel made in closing argument to a jury cannot be recaptured, nor can their full impact and prejudicial effect when considered in context with the total argument of counsel be accurately weighed, if the only record of such remarks consists of an effort by the trial judge to reconstruct or paraphrase the remarks for the record after objection is made.’ 208 So.2d at 468.
“To deny petitioner relief on the grounds that the record does not show prejudicial comments and objections, when it is necessary to have a full transcript of the arguments in order to determine prejudice in the first place and that transcript does not exist due to the order of the trial court is a complete non sequitur.
“Respondent’s contention that petitioner has foregone a remedy afforded by Rule 6.7(f), Florida Appellate Rules, is equally without merit. Rule 6.7(f) allows the preparation of a paraphrased stipulation as to the contents of the record on appeal. In the first place, because of the trial court’s ruling there is no record from which the parties could accurately stipulate. While it is true that alternative methods of reporting trial proceedings are permissible, such methods can be used only ‘if they place before the appellate court an equivalent report of the events at trial from which the appellant’s contentions arise.’ (Emphasis added.) Draper v. Washington, supra, 372 U.S. at 495, 83 S.Ct. at 779; Mack v. Walker, supra, 372 F.2d at 172. In light of the District Court of Appeal’s assessment of the character of the error presented in this case, an assessment to which this Court subscribes, it cannot be said that Rule 6.7(f) offers an ‘equivalent report’ of the events at trial.
“The respondent’s position places an undue burden upon the petitioner and his counsel to attempt to reconstruct an argument in order to show what might otherwise be isolated remarks by the prosecution were prejudicial. This burden would not have been placed upon petitioner had he been able to purchase the reporter’s time himself. Such a burden is in direct conflict with the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States as interpreted in Griffin v. Illinois, supra (351 U.S. 12, 76 S.Ct. 585, 100 L.Ed. 891).”
See also Williams v. Oklahoma City, 395 U.S. 458, 89 S.Ct. 1818, 23 L.Ed.2d 440 (1969).
I would reverse and remand for a new trial.