Court Opinion

ID: 9600084
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:24:07.401195+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:49.939672
License: Public Domain

Justice Meyer
concurring.
I concur in all aspects of this Court’s opinion, with the single exception of the holding that the district attorney, in response to pretrial discovery requests, erred in failing to disclose certain photographs showing scratches on defendant’s body. The photographs in question were made shortly after the crime occurred at the direction of a Lieutenant Gause. They were not in the possession of the district attorney; he knew absolutely nothing of their existence; and as this Court’s opinion makes clear, there has been no suggestion whatsoever of bad faith on his part.
Obviously, when a defendant files a request for voluntary discovery of photographs, the district attorney is duty bound to search his own files and to make reasonable inquiry of his assistants and the investigating officers as to the existence of the materials requested. It is, likewise, obvious that the district attorney may not refuse to make such examination and inquiry for the very purpose of avoiding discovery. Here, there has been no showing, or even any suggestion, that the district attorney did not make the proper examination of his files and inquiry of his assistants and the investigating officers as to the presence of the photographs in question.
This Court’s opinion concedes that the district attorney did not become aware of the existence of the photographs in question until “the middle of the trial.” The defendant’s attorney candidly states in his brief to this Court:
*104The record discloses that during lunch of the second day of trial, the District Attorney became aware of the existence of State’s Exhibits 27 through 36 and delivered them to counsel for the defendant at that time. The defendant does not question the prosecutor’s good faith in having only belatedly produced the documents ....
(Citation omitted.) The record clearly indicates that as soon as the district attorney discovered the photographs in question, he made defense counsel aware of them and actually showed the photographs to him. He thus complied with defendant’s discovery request as soon as he became aware of the existence of the requested photographs. It is my position that under the circumstances of this case, the district attorney’s failure to disclose the photographs in question was not only not prejudicial error, but it was not error at all.
Justices Mitchell and Martin join in this concurring opinion.