Opinion ID: 1249738
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: In Camera Review of Rap Sheets.

Text: Defendant demanded access to the rap sheets of all inmate witnesses, stating he was entitled to discover all their prior felony convictions. The prosecution resisted, saying it was obligated to provide information only about convictions bearing on a witness's truthfulness. As permitted by Evidence Code section 915, subdivision (b), which authorizes such a hearing, the court ordered in camera review of the rap sheets in the absence of defendant and his counsel. In the review the prosecution and the court decided that certain convictions  primarily for murder and manslaughter  did not involve deception and need not be disclosed, while others for, among other things, robbery, theft, or burglary must be revealed. Moreover, after in camera examination of one potential inmate witness, the court found the witness could provide no exculpatory information and ordered his identity kept secret. The witness was not called to testify. (15) Defendant contends he was entitled as a matter of state procedure and state and federal constitutional law to discover all the adverse witnesses' rap sheets. He further contends he was entitled to be included in the discussion at which the admissible convictions were separated from the inadmissible. He asserts that the error in failing to make the prosecution disclose all felony convictions was prejudicial because such disclosure would have shed light on the length of the sentences of key witnesses against him. Hence it would have provided the jury with additional information on the value of such prosecution blandishments as letters to the parole board  letters whose weight would be greater if an inmate were otherwise facing a long term with scant possibility of parole. Finally, defendant contends the prosecution failed to disclose a burglary conviction that came to light in the in camera discussion. While we disagree that the rap sheets themselves should have been disclosed, we agree that the court erred as a matter of state procedural law in failing to order disclosure of all felony convictions to the defense. In Hill v. Superior Court (1974) 10 Cal.3d 812, 821 [112 Cal. Rptr. 257, 518 P.2d 1353, 95 A.L.R.3d 820], we decided that rap sheets themselves need not be disclosed, but that a trial court should exercise its discretion in favor of allowing the defense to discover all felony convictions when good cause is shown for the discovery and it does not appear the disclosure will unduly hamper the prosecution or impair some other legitimate government interest. Among the offenses excluded were such serious crimes as first and second degree murder, arson and manslaughter. Whether the records of these offenses were admissible or not, we believe that defendant showed good cause to discover them, and that their disclosure did not impair a legitimate government interest. Hence the court abused its discretion in failing to allow discovery of the adverse witnesses' felony convictions. The rap sheets themselves, of course, did not have to be disclosed in order to provide the requested information. Nevertheless, it is not reasonably probable that had defendant had the benefit of the wrongly excluded information, he would have achieved a better result. The inmate witnesses were thoroughly impeached by evidence of state-provided benefits, prior inconsistent statements, and the like. And the jury knew they were incarcerated in prison for a felony. (16)(See fn. 7.) We discern no prejudice. [7]