Rule 19.4 Duties of court reporters.

When someone is on trial for a crime that could lead to the death penalty, the court reporter must write down everything that happens during jury selection and during the lawyers' arguments. This includes every question asked to potential jurors and everything said during opening and closing arguments. The judge cannot skip this requirement, and the defendant cannot agree to waive it either. It has to happen every time in a death penalty case.

For cases that are not death penalty cases, the court reporter only has to record jury selection and the lawyers' arguments if the judge specifically tells them to. In these regular cases, it is up to the judge's judgment whether a full written record of these parts of the trial is needed.

This rule matters because it affects what shows up in the official court record. If something isn't written down and there's an appeal later, it can be harder to challenge what happened during jury selection or during the arguments if there's no transcript of it.