Update on Wayne Bent trial transcripts

Updated at 10:21am PST

I regret to report that my plan to obtain transcripts of the Wayne Bent trial hasn’t exactly unfolded as expected.  As several of you know, I’d planned to make the transcripts available here on Beyond90Seconds.com.

Yesterday, I received a package in the mail from New Mexico’s Eighth Judicial District Court.  It contained the “transcripts” I’d ordered.

The “transcripts” were contained on seven CDs.  The CDs did not contain Word or pdf files of the trial.  Rather, each CD contained a single audio file.  Each audio file represented a specific day of the trial (the seventh CD contained the audio from Bent’s sentencing day).

This morning, I reached Union County Court Deputy Clerk Karen Vieites by telephone.  Vieites explained that “transcripts” are generally preserved as audio files these days.  A “steno“, she added, would only appear at trial at the request of a judge.  And that doesn’t usually happen, according to Vieites.

My initial concern was file size.  For example, the audio from day one of the trial runs more than 4-hours and 45-minutes.  I converted that Windows Media Audio to an mp3.  That brought the file size down to 326.3 MB.  And that’s just for day one of the trial (I was already thinking ahead to purchasing more storage space on WordPress).

But then—and this is the most important issue—I began listening to the audio.

The quality of the sound is very good.  And you hear everything.

Including the names of the victims.

Folks, I’ve wrestled with this in my head since yesterday.  Of course, I knew right away I wouldn’t upload the audio files with the names of the victims still audible.  There would have to be some editing to “bleep-out” those names.

But that would require a tremendous amount of editing.   I simply don’t have the time for that task, friends.

Some may argue that the files should be uploaded sans editing.  After all, it’s all public record.  And one girl’s name is easily known to anyone who’s followed this case (it does appear elsewhere on this blog, too).

Still, I can’t do it.  Not fair to the other girl.  Not fair to the family, really.

Should the day come when the entire family wants to sit down and do an interview with Dr. Phil, Larry King or some other media, that would cause me to reconsider my decision not to post the trial and sentencing audio on the Internet.

But the odds of such a day arriving seem pretty bleak, right now.

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Mark Horner Video & Photography Kit