Opinion ID: 1771816
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the necessity of disclosing to the defense the prior statements of state witnesses

Text: At various times prior to trial and during trial, defense counsel requested copies of prior statements of state witnesses. The trial court ruled that seven of eight prior statements contained no material inconsistencies and refused to turn them over to defense counsel. At the conclusion of the guilt phase, the lower court did supply defense counsel with all of the prior statements. The defendant then objected and moved for a mistrial, which motion was never ruled on, and later assigned this denial of the statements as a ground for new trial. In his bench opinion on the motion for new trial, the trial judge pointed to two examples, and ruled that the inconsistencies were not material, but rather, minor. We have carefully reviewed the witnesses' prior statements and, while it is unnecessary at this juncture to go into any detail, we are convinced that the defense would have been materially advanced by access to those statements. We would only point out that our recent decisions in Porter v. State (Miss. No. 58111, dec'd February 15, 1989) (not yet reported) and Brock v. State, 530 So.2d 146 (Miss. 1988) make it clear that, under Rule 4.06 of the Uniform Criminal Rules of Circuit Court Practice, as amended by these decisions, all such statements, whether materially inconsistent or not, must, upon request, be turned over to the defense during discovery. The only exception to full disclosure must be based upon the trial court's determination that `... there is a substantial risk to any person of physical harm, intimidation, ..., resulting from such disclosure, which outweighs any usefulness of the disclosure to defense counsel.' Porter, slip opinion at 3; quoting Rule 4.06, Unif.Crim.R.Cir.Ct. Prac. REVERSED AND APPELLANT DISCHARGED. ROY NOBLE LEE, C.J., HAWKINS and DAN M. LEE, P.JJ., and PRATHER, ROBERTSON, SULLIVAN and BLASS, JJ., concur. PITTMAN, J., not participating.