Britt v. North Carolina

Petitioner’s three-day murder trial ended in a mistrial when the jury reported a hopeless deadlock. A retrial was scheduled for the following month. In the interim, petitioner filed a motion alleging that he was indigent, and asking for a free transcript of the first trial. The trial court denied his motion, and the North *227Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed, stating that the record of the case did not reveal a sufficient need for the transcript. 8 N. C. App. 262, 174 S. E. 2d 69 (1970). The North Carolina Supreme Court denied certiorari. We granted certiorari to determine whether the rule of…