Opinion ID: 1369044
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Application for Funds for Psychiatric and Psychological Examinations

Text: Under Penal Code section 987.9, defendant made an application for funds for psychiatric and psychological examinations to the Honorable Richard Marsh of the Riverside Superior Court, who was not the trial judge. Because he was unfamiliar with section 987.9 procedure, Judge Marsh consulted with other judges of the court, including the trial judge, and thereafter conducted an in camera hearing and approved the funds. Defendant then moved to disqualify all the judges who were made aware of his application on the ground that the provision impliedly prohibited any judge who participated in passing on a request from presiding over the trial. A municipal court judge heard and denied the motion. (13) Defendant contends in substance that Judge Marsh's disclosure of his application and the subsequent denial of his disqualification motion effectively violated the confidentiality requirement of section 987.9 and thereby infringed his rights against self-incrimination and to due process and effective assistance of counsel. Section 987.9 states in relevant part: In the trial of a capital case the indigent defendant, through his counsel, may request the court for funds for the specific payment of ... experts.... The fact that such an application has been made shall be confidential and the contents of the application shall be confidential. Upon receipt of such application, a judge of the court, other than the trial judge presiding over the capital case in question, shall rule on the reasonableness of the request.... The confidentiality requirement was evidently intended to prevent the prosecution from learning of the application for funds and thereby improperly anticipating the accused's defense. (66 Ops.Cal.Atty.Gen. 407, 408-410 (1983); see Keenan v. Superior Court (1982) 31 Cal.3d 424, 430 [180 Cal. Rptr. 489, 640 P.2d 108].) The mandate that a judge other than the trial judge rule on the application  the other-judge provision  was clearly designed to support the confidentiality requirement and to further its purpose. As the cited Attorney General's opinion explains: To satisfy the demands of the California cases which have placed restrictions on discovery by the prosecution, the section provides that the fact of any application for such funds, as well as its contents, be confidential, and that any hearings and rulings made thereon take place in camera, i.e., in a closed meeting with the judge outside the presence of others including the prosecution. [Citations.] ... In Prudhomme v. Superior Court [1970] 2 Cal.3d 320, our Supreme Court held that a defendant may not be compelled by a discovery order to disclose information to the prosecution (such as the names, addresses and expected testimony of defense witnesses) unless the information sought `cannot possibly tend to incriminate [him]' or `conceivably ... lighten the prosecution's burden of proving its case in chief.' [Citation.] Compelled disclosure otherwise would violate a defendant's federal constitutional right against self-incrimination. [Citation.] In Reynolds v. Superior Court (1974) 12 Cal.3d 834, 843 (notice of alibi) the court admitted it was `more solicitous of the privilege against self-incrimination than federal law ... requires' [citation] and in Allen v. Superior Court (Dec. 1976) 18 Cal.3d 520 it iterated that solicitude, affirmed the stringent standards it set forth in Prudhomme for protection of the privilege, and, now founding it on article I, section 15, of the California Constitution [citation], issued a writ of prohibition to restrain enforcement of a discovery order compelling disclosure of the names of prospective defense witnesses in a criminal case. [Citation.] Section 987.9 was enacted in September 1977 as an urgent measure to accompany the Legislature's restoration of capital punishment.... At the time it was enacted we can safely presume the Legislature was aware of the decisional background wrought by the Prudhomme Reynolds Allen line of cases which placed restrictions on discovery by the prosecution that would compromise the defense. [Citation.] In light of it the purpose for the confidentiality provisions of section 987.9 is seen as an effort to fill the constitutional need of providing the indigent defendant in a capital case with sufficient monies for ancillary services necessary to prepare and present a complete and effective defense but in such a way that would not run afoul of the constitutional warnings of Prudhomme and Allen against premature forced disclosures of certain of its aspects, i.e., those which would `tend to incriminate the defendant' or `might conceivably lighten the prosecution's burden.' Undoubtedly the Legislature felt an impermissible disclosure would occur if a defendant's need for monies for ancillary services and its particulars were made known to the prosecution. It thus provided for their confidentiality in section 987.9 to avoid that possibility and freed the defense from the course it otherwise would have had to steer between the Scylla of publicly applying for needed funds and in so doing disclosing some of the defense to the prosecution and the Charybdis of keeping the defense secret but, in so doing, foregoing the necessary monies for its preparation and presentation. (66 Ops.Cal.Atty.Gen., supra, at pp. 408-410, fn. omitted, italics in original.) We agree with defendant that the confidentiality requirement of section 987.9 was violated here. In considering the application, Judge Marsh sought the advice of other judges of the court and communicated, at the very least, the fact that an application had been made. Further, he discussed the matter with the trial judge  to whom, the provision clearly implies, disclosure should not be made. The violation, however, does not constitute reversible error. Per se reversibility is, of course, the exception to the general rule requiring a showing of prejudice. (See People v. Bostick (1965) 62 Cal.2d 820, 823-827 [44 Cal. Rptr. 649, 402 P.2d 529].) Defendant fails to show that a violation such as occurred in this case falls within this exception. Thus, reversibility here depends on whether defendant was deprived of a fair trial or otherwise suffered prejudice as a result. (Cf. People v. Pompa-Ortiz (1980) 27 Cal.3d 519, 529-530 [165 Cal. Rptr. 851, 612 P.2d 941] [irregularities in preliminary examination procedures].) The fundamental and immediate harm that a violation of section 987.9 threatens, of course, is the disclosure of potentially significant information to the prosecution. [4] Such harm did not flow proximately from the violation here: there is simply no evidence that the information communicated by Judge Marsh made its way either directly or indirectly to the prosecution. [5]