Denying the jury access to the trial transcript

November 16, 2023 5:25 PM

In an article on a recent major trial it was reported that "During deliberations this week, the jury asked a few questions, including a request for the court transcript. That request was denied, with the judge instructing the jury to instead rely on their memory." That seems counterintuitive to me? What would the reasoning be?
posted by Tell Me No Lies to Law & Government (10 answers total)

I'm assuming you're referring to do the denial of the court transcript, as opposed to the other "few questions" that are not stated.

I don't know about that specific situation/state/etc, but there may not actually be a transcript yet. The court reporter will take notes, and maybe have a tape to listen to, but the actual official transcript will be created days after the trial. It takes significantly longer to create the transcript than the time in the trial.

Also, requesting the entire transcript, even if it existed, would potentially be viewed as an instrument for some member of the jury to nitpick over for the deliberation to try to find something in there as a "gotcha". In areas where juries can be provided with transcripts, they are usually provided only a portion of the transcript, for a particular statement or particular portion of testimony.
posted by saeculorum at 5:50 PM on November 16, 2023 [5 favorites]

Beats me. The last time I was on a jury, we had to have the court transcriptionist come in and read us back some stuff, but that was allowed and okay. I can see them not being able to provide a transcript the jury could read since court transcriptions have some kind of special shorthand going on, but saying "just rely on your memory" is a surpriser.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:50 PM on November 16, 2023

The reporting isn't too clear but, if they requested the entire transcript, a jury absolutely could get bogged down in that even if it were already available (the court can get rushes but they generally don't without good reason, and so testimony from two-four days before the jury was sent to deliberate wouldn't necessarily already be available). Importantly, they also might focus on testimony that had later been excluded/limited in value/qualified and miss the judge's instructions on that later in the transcript.
posted by praemunire at 7:20 PM on November 16, 2023 [2 favorites]

Not all jurisdictions have court reporters or updated transcripts. For instance, in Oregon state courts, the proceedings are recorded on a digital file, and then if the matter is appealed, a transcript is generated as part of the appellate process. So unfortunately there's not even a transcript should a judge want to give a jury one. No idea about your jurisdiction, though.
posted by Happydaz at 8:32 PM on November 16, 2023

I don't know the answer to why it happened in this particular case, but I came here to say I've served on two juries where this happened. Both in Baltimore. One criminal, one civil (medical malpractice). Both times, we asked for portions of the transcript--or any way to be reminded of/get clarity on what was actually said. And both times were denied and told to rely only on our memories. And on our own notes, in the civil trial.
posted by ImproviseOrDie at 5:00 AM on November 17, 2023

I work in the court system. Transcriptions take time. And in the very overburdened courts, they rarely have a spare court reporter who can transcribe an entire trial, which us hundreds of pages.
posted by tiny frying pan at 5:59 AM on November 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

In addition to the point that a final transcript might not have been completed yet, as mentioned by others, another potential problem is that trial transcripts often include stuff that the jury does not hear - like arguments that take place when the jury is out, or sidebars that are screened from the jury. It would be difficult to chop out all of those pieces in a quick way - a trial trial transcript can be hundreds or thousands of pages long.

Typically during a trial, the only transcript that is available is a rough or rush transcript, that will have lots of inaccuracies. Even a final transcript may have inaccuracies. If a judge allows the jury to see a transcript that turns out to have inaccuracies, it could set up an appeal by the losing side, which makes the whole trial a waste of time.
posted by Mid at 7:10 AM on November 17, 2023 [4 favorites]

If a judge allows the jury to see a transcript that turns out to have inaccuracies, it could set up an appeal by the losing side, which makes the whole trial a waste of time..

This is true, but I'd like to add that it would be an extremely valid thing to bring up on appeal, and should earn someone a new trial.
posted by tiny frying pan at 7:48 AM on November 17, 2023 [2 favorites]

The one jury I was on we had our requests for portions of the transcript denied while our other questions were mostly answered.
posted by mmascolino at 12:39 PM on November 17, 2023

In my jurisdiction, there is no transcript, unless someone pays to create one, at a cost of about $7 a page. So there's simply nothing to give to the jury.
posted by decathecting at 11:00 PM on November 21, 2023