Mayer v. City of Chicago 8212 5040

• Decision Date: 13 December 1971
• Docket Number: No. 70,70
• Citation: 404 U.S. 189,92 S.Ct. 410,30 L.Ed.2d 372
• Parties: Jack L. MAYER, Appellant, v. CITY OF CHICAGO. —5040
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

404 U.S. 189

92 S.Ct. 410

30 L.Ed.2d 372

Jack L. MAYER, Appellant,

v CITY OF CHICAGO.

No. 70—5040.

Argued Oct. 14, 1971.

Decided Dec. 13, 1971.

Syllabus

Appellant was convicted on nonfelony charges of violating two city of Chicago ordinances and was sentenced to pay a fine of $250 on each offense. Desiring to appeal, he petitioned the trial court for a free trial transcript to support his appeal on the grounds of insufficient evidence and prosecutorial misconduct. Although the court found that he was indigent, it denied his application on the basis of an Illinois Supreme Court rule which provided for trial transcripts only in felony cases. Other rules provided alternatives to a transcript in the form of a 'Settled Statement' or an 'Agreed Statement of Facts.' Without resorting to either alternative, appellant moved for a free transcript in the State Supreme Court. The motion was denied. Held:

1. Although the State must afford the indigent defendant a trial "record of sufficient completeness' to permit proper consideration of (his) claims,' Draper v. Washington, 372 U.S. 487, 499, 83 S.Ct. 774, 781, 9 L.Ed.2d 899, it need not necessarily furnish a complete verbatim transcript, but may provide alternatives that accord effective appellate review. Pp. 193—195.

2. When the defendant's grounds for appeal, as here, make out a colorable need for a complete transcript, the State has the burden of showing that only a portion thereof or an 'alternative' will suffice for an effective appeal on those grounds. P. 195.

3. The distinction drawn by the State Supreme Court rule between felony and nonfelony offenses is an 'unreasoned distinction' proscribed by the Fourteenth Amendment. Pp. 195—196.

4. The fact that the charges on which the appellant was convicted were punishable by a fine rather than by confinement does not lessen the invidious discrimination against an indigent defendant. Pp. 196—198.

Vacated and remanded.

Henry F. Field, Chicago, Ill., for the appellant.

Richard L. Curry, Chicago, Ill., for the appellee.

Mr. Justice BRENNAN delivered the 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.¹ 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.'² (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.'³ 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).

I

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).⁴ 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.'⁵

II

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. * * *"⁶

III

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...