People v. Rivera González
People v. Rivera González
Opinion of the Court
In the motion filed by the defendants on November 1 of the present year it is stated that on August 12, 1952, they
Appellants further allege that the purpose of the motion of the prosecuting attorneys is to incorporate in the transcript of the evidence the incident connected with the order separating the defendants from their attorney, as well as the photograph which the judge ordered to be taken and which was never taken; that the motion of the prosecuting attorneys should be dismissed and, further, that the Superior Court has no jurisdiction to grant the request.
On November 2, in answer to defendants’ motion, we set a hearing for the 8th of the said month, at 9 a.m., and the Arecibo Part of the Superior Court was ordered to abstain from entertaining the motion filed by The People on October 27, 1954 until further order of this Court. The hearing was held and, after separate memoranda were filed by the parties, the question was finally submitted to our consideration.
Section 356 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, as amended by Act No. 4 of 1925 (Sess. Laws, p. 108), and Rule 10 of the Rules of this Court, regulate the procedure to be followed in sending up to this Court the record on appeal in any criminal case. In the instant case, the transcript has already been sent up. The purpose of the prosecuting attorneys’ motion is merely to correct the transcript. With respect to the correction of the record, our Rule 13 provides that, “For the purpose of correcting any error or defect. . ., either party may suggest the same in writing by motion filed with the clerk; and upon good cause shown, the court shall order the clerk to make the correction or that the proper officer certify to this court the whole or any part of the record,
Before the transcript of the record is sent up to this Court, the trial court has full authority to correct and approve the transcript of the evidence. The latter and the-judgment'roll make up the transcript of the record. However, once the transcript of the record is sent up, only this Court may authorize any amendments, additions, or correct tions thereto. Hence, our aforesaid order of November 2, 1954, setting a hearing for appellee’s motion and ordering, the trial court to abstain from entertaining the same.
. We should not enter the order urged by the prosecuting attorneys seeking reconstruction of the facts and the situation brought about by the order in question of the Superior Court. The records which are sent up to this Court should speak for themselves, and are the only ones which we shall consider in deciding any matter submitted to us. If those records are deficient and it is necessary to correct them in any way, we frequently authorize their correction when our attention is called thereto, provided it is necessary for the solution of the problem raised. However, as stated in Pérez Brothers v. Arenas, 30 P.R.R. 93, the errors which may be corrected in this Court by motion under Rules 55 and 56 of the Regulations in force — the former was similar to Rule 13 copied above — are those which may have been made in copying and are evident, or.those which consist in the omission of parts of the original statement, from the general record or from some other independent document, proper or necessary for the appeal. See, also, Crosas v. Gutiérrez, 19 P.R.R. 1086.
In the instant case, The People does not request the correction of the record for the purpose of taking up in this Court something which actually occurred during the trial, On the contrary, they seek to reproduce a scene, for the purposes of the appeal, in order that a description be made or a photograph taken, neither of which was done at the trial.
The parties should have anticipated that such an order could be challenged on appeal in an assignment of error to the trial court. They could have stated in the record the distance at which the defendants were situated from their attorneys, and any other particular relating to that order. They .could have also insisted that the photograph in question be taken. They did nothing of the kind and we must not at this time exercise our discretion on their behalf.
Considering the motion of the prosecuting attorney as submitted to this Court for decision, the same is dismissed, and, consequently, the correction of the record sought by them is denied.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.