Mayer v. City of Chicago/Opinion of the Court

A jury in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, convicted appellant on nonfelony charges of disorderly conduct and interference with a police officer in violation of ordinances of the city of Chicago. He was sentenced to a $250 fine on each offense; violation of each ordinance carried a maximum penalty of $500. Desiring to appeal, he petitioned the Circuit Court for a free transcript of the proceedings of his trial to support his grounds of appeal that the evidence was insufficient for conviction and that misconduct of the prosecutor denied him a fair trial. The Circuit Court found that he was indigent, but denied his application, stating 'that defendant was found guilty of ordinance violations and * *  * rule 607 of the Supreme Court applies to felony cases.' The reference was to Illinois Supreme Court Rule 607(b), which in pertinent part provided: 'In any case in which the defendant is convicted of a felony, he may petition the court in which he was convicted for a report of proceedings at his trial.' (Emphasis supplied.) Other Illinois Supreme Court rules, Rules 323(c) and 323(d), provided for alternatives to a transcript in the form of a 'Settled Statement' or an 'Agreed Statement of Facts.' Without resorting to either alternative, appellant made a motion in the Illinois Supreme Court for an order that he be furnished a transcript of proceedings without cost. The Supreme Court denied the motion in an unreported order without filing an opinion. We noted probable jurisdiction of appellant's appeal challenging the constitutionality of the limitation of Rule 607(b) to felony cases. 401 U.S. 906, 91 S.Ct. 893, 27 L.Ed.2d 804 (1971).

* Griffin v. Illinois, 351 U.S. 12, 76 S.Ct. 585, 100 L.Ed. 891 (1956), is the watershed of our transcript decisions. We held there that '(d)estitute defendants must be afforded as adequate appellate review as defendants who have money enough to buy transcripts.' Id., at 19, 76 S.Ct., at 591. This holding rested on the 'constitutional guaranties of due process and equal protection both (of which) call for procedures in criminal trials which allow no invidious discriminations between persons and different groups of persons.' Id., at 17, 76 S.Ct., at 589. We said that '(p)lainly the ability to pay costs in advance bears no rational relationship to a defendant's guilt or innocence * *  * ,' id., at 17-18, 76 S.Ct., at 590, and concluded that '(t)here can be no equal justice where the kind of trial a man gets depends on the amount of money he has.' Id., at 19, 76 S.Ct., at 591. Appellee city of Chicago urges that we re-examine Griffin. We decline to do so. For 'it is now fundamental that, once established * *  * avenues (of appellate review) must be kept free of unreasoned distinctions that can only impede open and equal access to the courts.' Rinaldi v. Yeager, 384 U.S. 305, 310, 86 S.Ct. 1497, 1500, 16 L.Ed.2d 577 (1966). Therefore, '(i)n all cases the duty of the State is to provide the indigent as adequate and effective an appellate review as that given appellants with funds. * *  * ' Draper v. Washington, 372 U.S. 487, 496, 83 S.Ct. 774, 779, 9 L.Ed.2d 899 (1963). In terms of a trial record, this means that the State must afford the indigent a "record of sufficient completeness' to permit proper consideration of (his) claims.' Id., at 499, 83 S.Ct., at 781 (quoting Coppedge v. United States, 369 U.S. 438, 446, 82 S.Ct. 917, 921, 8 L.Ed.2d 21 (1962)).

A 'record of sufficient completeness' does not translate automatically into a complete verbatim transcript. We said in Griffin that a State 'may find other means (than providing stenographic transcripts for) affording adequate and effective appellate review to indigent defendants.' 351 U.S., at 20, 76 S.Ct., at 591. We considered this more fully in Draper v. Washington, supra, 372 U.S., at 495-496, 83 S.Ct., at 779:

'Alternative methods of reporting trial proceedings are     permissible if they place before the appellate court an      equivalent report of the events at trial from which the      appellant's contentions arise. A statement of facts agreed to     by both sides, a full narrative statement based perhaps on      the trial judge's minutes taken during trial or on the court      reporter's untranscribed notes, or a bystander's bill of      exceptions might all be adequate substitutes, equally as good      as a transcript. Moreover, part or all of the stenographic     transcript in certain cases will not be germane to      consideration of the appeal, and a State will not be required      to expend its funds unnecessarily in such circumstances. If,     for instance, the points urged relate only to the validity of      the statute or the sufficiency of the indictment upon which      conviction was predicated, the transcript is irrelevant and      need not be provided. If the assignments of error go only to     rulings on evidence or to its sufficiency, the transcript      provided might well be limited to the portions relevant to      such issues. Even as to this kind of issue, however, it is unnecessary to afford a     record of the proceedings pertaining to an alleged failure of      proof on a point which is irrelevant as a matter of law to      the elements of the crime for which the defendant has been      convicted. In the examples given, the fact that an appellant     with funds may choose to waste his money by unnecessarily      including in the record all of the transcript does not mean      that the State must waste its funds by providing what is      unnecessary for adequate appellate review.'

We emphasize, however, that the State must provide a full verbatim record where that is necessary to assure the indigent as effective an appeal as would be available to the defendant with resources to pay his own way. Moreover, where the grounds of appeal, as in this case, make out a colorable need for a complete transcript, the burden is on the State to show that only a portion of the transcript or an 'alternative' will suffice for an effective appeal on those grounds. This rationale underlies our statement in Draper, supra, at 498, 83 S.Ct., at 780 that:

'(T)he State could have endeavored to show that a narrative     statement or only a portion of the transcript would be      adequate and available for appellate consideration of      petitioners' contentions. The trial judge would have complied     with *  *  * the constitutional mandate *  *  * in limiting the      grant accordingly on the basis of such a showing by the      State.'

The distinction between felony and nonfelony offenses drawn by Rule 607(b) can no more satisfy the requirements of the Fourteenth Amendment than could the like distinction in the Wisconsin law, held invalid in Groppi v. Wisconsin, 400 U.S. 505, 91 S.Ct. 490, 27 L.Ed.2d 571 (1971), which permitted a change of venue in felony but not in misdemeanor trials. The size of the defendant's pocketbook bears no more relationship to his guilt or innocence in a nonfelony than in a felony case. The distinction drawn by Rule 607(b) is, therefore, an 'unreasoned distinction' proscribed by the Fourteenth Amendment. Rinaldi v. Yeager, supra, 384 U.S., at 310, 86 S.Ct., at 1500. That conclusion follows directly from our decision in Williams v. Oklahoma City, 395 U.S. 458, 459, 89 S.Ct. 1818, 1819, 23 L.Ed.2d 440 (1969), rejecting the argument "that an indigent person, convicted for a violation of a city ordinance, quasi criminal in nature and often referred to as a petty offense, is (not) entitled to a case-made or transcript at city expense in order to perfect an appeal. * *  * "

The city of Chicago urges another distinction to set this case apart from Griffin and its progeny. The city notes that the defendants in all the transcript cases previously decided by this Court were sentenced to some term of confinement. Where the accused, as here, is not subject to imprisonment, but only a fine, the city suggests that his interest in a transcript is outweighed by the State's fiscal and other interests in not burdening the appellate process. This argument misconceives the principle of Griffin no less than does the line that Rule 607(b) expressly draws. Griffin does not represent a balance between the needs of the accused and the interests of society; its principle is a flat prohibition against pricing indigent defendants out of as effective an appeal as would be available to others able to pay their own way. The invidiousness of the discrimination that exists when criminal procedures are made available only to those who can pay is not erased by any differences in the sentences that may be imposed. The State's fiscal interest is, therefore, irrelevant. Cf. Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U.S. 618, 633, 89 S.Ct. 1322, 1330, 22 L.Ed.2d 600 (1969).

We add that even approaching the problem in the terms the city suggests hardly yields the answer the city tenders. The practical effects of conviction of even petty offenses of the kind involved here are not to be minimized. A fine may bear as heavily on an indigent accused as forced confinement. The collateral consequences of conviction may be even more serious, as when (as was apparently a possibility in this case) the impecunious medical student finds himself barred from the practice of medicine because of a conviction he is unable to appeal for lack of funds. Moreover, the State's long-term interest would not appear to lie in making access to appellate processes from even its most inferior courts depend upon the defendant's ability to pay. It has been aptly said:

'(F)ew citizens ever have contact with the higher courts. In     the main, it is the police and the lower court Bench and Bar      that convey the essence of our democracy to the people.

'Justice, if it can be measured, must be measured by the     experience the average citizen has with the police and the      lower courts.'

Arbitrary denial of appellate review of proceedings of the State's lowest trial courts may save the State some dollars and cents, but only at the substantial risk of generating frustration and hostility toward its courts among the most numerous consumers of justice.

We conclude that appellant cannot be denied a 'record of sufficient completeness' to permit proper consideration of his claims. We repeat that this does not mean that he is automatically entitled to a full verbatim transcript. He urges that his claims of insufficiency of the evidence and prejudicial prosecutorial misconduct cannot be fairly judged without recourse to the trial record. Draper suggests that these are indeed the kinds of claims that require provision of a verbatim transcript. See also Gardner v. California, 393 U.S. 367, 89 S.Ct. 580, 21 L.Ed.2d 601 (1969). In Draper, however, the State of Washington did not undertake to carry its burden of showing that something less than a complete transcript would suffice. Here the City of Chicago urges that the Illinois procedures for a 'Settled' or 'Agreed' statement may provide adequate alternatives. The city also argues that even if a verbatim record is required, less than a complete transcript may assure fair appellate review. We cannot address these questions, since the record before us contains only the parties' conflicting assertions; so far as appears neither of the Illinois courts below regarded resolution of the dispute to be relevant in light of Rule 607(b). That this was the view of the Circuit Court is clear. The order of the Supreme Court, however, may not have been based on the rule, but on the ground that appellant had the burden of showing that the alternatives of a 'Settled' or 'Agreed' statement were inadequate. We hold today that a denial of appellant's motion, either on the basis of the rule, or, in the context of his grounds of appeal, on the basis that he did not meet the burden of showing the inadequacy of the alternatives, would constitute constitutional error.

We are informed that appellant's appeal from his conviction has been docketed in the Illinois Supreme Court and that its disposition has been deferred pending our decision of this case. We therefore vacate the order of the Illinois Supreme Court and remand the case to that court for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.

It is so ordered.

Order vacated and case remanded with directions.

Mr. Chief Justice BURGER (concurring).

I join the Court's opinion but add these observations chiefly to underscore that there are alternatives in the majority of cases to a full verbatim transcript of an entire trial. The references to what was said in Draper v. Washington, 372 U.S. 487, 83 S.Ct. 774, 9 L.Ed.2d 899 (1963), emphasize the duty of counsel as officers of the court to seek only what is needed. In most cases, unlike this one, the essential facts are not in dispute on appeal, or if there is dispute it centers on certain limited aspects of the case. One need only examine briefs in appeals to see that at the appellate stage the area of conflict on the facts is generally narrow.

Every busy court is plagued with excessive demands for free transcripts in criminal cases. My own experience over the years indicates that privately employed counsel are usually spartan in their demands because the client must pay his own costs. Unfortunately one consequence of the advent of the Criminal Justice Act and state counterparts is that when costs are paid by the public, counsel are sometimes profligate in their demands, or yield their professional judgment to the client's desires. This is more than a matter of costs. An affluent society ought not be miserly in support of justice, for economy is not an objective of the system; the real vice is the resulting delay in securing transcripts and hence determining the appeal. When excessive demands are made by an appellant in order to postpone the day when the appeal is finally determined, because, for example, he is at liberty pending appeal, a lawyer who cooperates is guilty of unprofessional conduct.

I quite agree with Mr. Justice BRENNAN that 'a full verbatim record where that is necessary * *  * ' should be provided but judges and lawyers have a duty to avoid abuses that promote delays.

Mr. Justice BLACKMUN (concurring).

I concur in the opinion and judgment of the Court. I merely add an observation: The record indicates that in 1969, when the charges were brought against the appellant and he asserted his indigency, he was a third-year student in New York University Medical School. Perhaps, in the intervening two years, the appellant has completed his professional training. Perhaps by now he is even licensed and is earning his living. If so, these will be factors to be considered by the Illinois courts on remand.