Supreme Court of California

In a prosecution of defendant for first degree murder and related crimes, resulting in his sentence to death, the court of appeals' partial grant of defendant's petition for writ of mandate seeking to compel the superior court to grant discovery requests it had denied is reversed and remanded where: 1) to be entitled to receive discovery beyond merely recovering items that the prosecutor had provided to defense counsel before trial, defendants must show they have a reasonable basis to believe that the specific materials they seek actually exist; and 2) because section 1054.9 does not govern materials in the possession of out-of-state law enforcement agencies that merely provided the prosecution with information or assistance under the circumstances of this case, the prosecution is not required to provide discovery of materials from the out-of-state law enforcement agencies of this case that the prosecution does not itself possess.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/26/2010
• Published 08/26/2010

Judges

• CHIN

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Bill Lockyer