Trial transcripts????

[beachgrl001]

Dose anyone know if there is a way to get these. MY friend is trying to get them from her sisters murder trial. One of the guys that got convicted 20yrs ago for murdering her sis(and my best friend) is getting a retrial and the DA is not being helpful. We were only 15/16 when the trial took place and were in shock when it was going on so we would like to read the transcripts to see who the wittnesses were ect.

Thanks for any info.

 

[BabyTigger99]

Contact the Court Reporter who did the hearing. You should be able to find out who the Court Reporter was by looking at the actual criminal file.

 

[RadioFanatic]

BT has it right. Also, you could call either the Judge's chambers who conducted the trial or the court clerk to get the name of the reporter. Word of warning, it will probably be pretty expensive to get, and the more expensive the longer the trial it was. And it might take awhile for the reporter to transcribe it. I had to get one once and it was about $3000 for a two week trial and it took several months to get.

 

[N.Bailey]

You can get copies normally, but they're certainly not cheap. They can run into the thousands of dollars for each day that a trial lasted. If you've got the money though, contact the courts and/or court reporter.

 

[beachgrl001]

Thanks for the info. I will let her know. I really appreciate your responces. The DA did just send her like 2 pages its mostly about the witnessess so thats probably enough for right now.

 

[barkley]

she might be able to get alot of information from newspaper coverage at the time of the trial. if she still lives in the same area she could go to the library and see how far their micro-fiche goes back. if it got considerable coverage there might have been daily articles in a local paper that will include much of what transpired in the trial.

 

[POB14]

One of the guys that got convicted 20yrs ago for murdering her sis(and my best friend) is getting a retrial and the DA is not being helpful.

Kind of off topic, but why is the DA being unhelpful? He's on your side here. Are the transcipts perhaps sealed for some reason?

Most prosecutors' offices have a victim witness coordinator. As a murder victim's family member, your friend has certain rights (depending on the state involved) and the VW person's job is to see that those rights are upheld.

It sounds like there is some miscommunication between your friend and the prosecutor. I would suggest she go through the VW coordinator and try to resolve that issue. That's probably more important than getting the transcripts right now.

 

[MorganLeFey]

if there was an appeal from the original verdict (and it sounds like there was) the trial transcripts would have been part of the appellate record. you can pull the appellate file and read the transcripts. a lot less expensive than trying to track down a court reporter and have him/her transcribe ancient notes.