Court Opinion

ID: 9726628
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 13:00:52.840428+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:29.275326
License: Public Domain

SCOTT, J.
I concur that the judgment should be affirmed, but disagree with the majority holding that the discovery permitted by the court violated the appellant’s privilege against self-incrimination.
I would hold that the discovery by the People of statements made to the defense investigators by defense alibi witnesses does not constitute an unconstitutional violation of the defendant’s privilege against self-incrimination if the statements only impeach the testimony of the alibi witnesses.
In Prudhomme v. Superior Court (1970) 2 Cal.3d 320 [85 Cal.Rptr. 129, 466 P.2d 673], the Supreme Court reversed an order requiring a defendant to disclose to the prosecution the names, addresses, and expected testimony of the witnesses the defendant intended to call at trial. The court determined that the United States Constitutional privilege against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment, as applied as an element of due process against state actions by the Fourteenth Amendment, precluded such an overbroad order. The court held that in determining whether a particular demand for discovery should be *805allowed, the court must decide “whether disclosure thereof conceivably might lighten the prosecution’s burden of proving its case in chief’ (2 Cal.3d at p. 326). The court limited the prosecution’s right to discovery by holding that the privilege against self-incrimination forbids compelled disclosures which might serve as a link in a chain of evidence tending to establish a defendant’s guilt. Before a prosecutor’s request for discovery will be granted, it must clearly appear to the trial court from a consideration of all the circumstances that the requested disclosure cannot possibly have a tendency to incriminate the defendant (at p. 326).
The Prudhomme court then made clear that prosecutorial discovery is permissible in a proper case. “We do not intend to suggest that the prosecution should be barred from any discovery in this, or any other, case. A reasonable demand for factual information which,. . . pertains to a particular defense or defenses, and seeks only that information which defendant intends to introduce at trial, may present no substantial hazards of self-incrimination and therefore justify the trial judge in determining that under the facts and circumstances in the case before him it clearly appears that disclosure cannot possibly tend to incriminate defendant. However, unless those criteria are met, discovery should be refused.” (2 Cal.3d at p. 327.)1 The clear words of Prudhomme proscribe prosecutorial discovery only when the disclosure could possibly incriminate or lead to evidence that would incriminate the defendant.
Since Prudhomme a number of Court of Appeal cases and one California Supreme Court case have discussed prosecutorial discovery, *806but none has answered the precise question presented here. In People v. Bais (1973) 31 Cal.App.3d 663 [107 Cal.Rptr. 519], after the testimony of two alibi witnesses, the prosecutor moved to discover statements made by those witnesses to defense investigators. Over defense objections based on Prudhomme, the trial court granted the motion, apparently neither inquiring into the contents of the requested statements nor examining them. On appeal, the defendant’s conviction was reversed. Although the discovered statement was not part of the record on appeal, the court concluded that the discovery prompted certain critical questions of the witness on cross-examination, and violated the defendant’s Fifth Amendment privilege against compulsory self-incrimination. The Attorney General argued that negating an alibi defense with impeachment evidence was not part of the prosecutor’s case in chief and that Prudhomme did not ban discovery of evidence to be used in rebuttal. Replying to that argument, the court held that “prosecution discovery must be denied, regardless of when requested, if the trial court determines that the matters to be disclosed will conceivably ‘lighten’ the ‘burden’ which the prosecution bears in bringing about a conviction of the accused.2 ‘Negating an alibi defense’ may very well produce this result, irrespective of the fact that it would be done through the medium of rebuttal evidence. The Prudhomme test consequently applies, and bars the discovery ordered here.” (Bais, 31 Cal.App.3d at p. 672; see also Allen v. Superior Court (1976) 18 Cal.3d 520, 526 [134 Cal.Rptr. 774, 557 P.2d 65].)
The court then stated that in addition, the prospect of “negating an alibi defense” was by no means the only possible consequence of the requested discovery. The court speculated about the possible use the prosecutor might make of the requested documents other than for impeachment, and stated, “The possibilities emphasize the requirement that the trial court examine the matters to be disclosed before granting prosecution discovery; the failure of the present trial court to do this was the essential error.” (Bais, at p. 673.) Implicit in the court’s statement is the recognition that solely impeaching statements would be discoverable.
The holding in Bais was that the trial court erred in its failure to examine the requested material before granting discovery to the prosecutor. The court did not hold that disclosure of evidence which may *807impeach an alibi witness will always result in impermissibly incriminating the defendant. The majority’s reliance on Bais in support of its holding is therefore misplaced.
In People v. Chavez (1973) 33 Cal.App.3d 454 [109 Cal.Rptr. 157], the trial court allowed, over defense objections, prosecutorial discovery of nonalibi witness statements made by certain defense witnesses to a public defender’s investigators. Defense counsel had offered to submit the statements to the court for a determination as to what portions were subject to discovery, but that offer was rejected by the court. On appeal, the court held that the trial court erred in not examining the statements before granting prosecutorial discovery. The court concluded, however, that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt under the facts of the case. (Chavez, at p. 462.)
Discussing the hazards of not examining the statements before granting the prosecution discovery, the court noted that it was conceivable the statements disclosed could contain matters which could aid the prosecution’s case in chief and thus lighten its burden of proof. (Chavez, at p. 459.) The court then went on to state that it was equally conceivable the statements could serve to impeach a defense witness. By drawing this distinction, the court by implication approved prosecutorial discovery limited to statements of impeachment value. As to such impeachment evidence, the court stated, “we perceive that under our adversary system in the conduct of trials the prosecutor would have been entitled to discover whether the statements contained any matter that would serve to impeach the witness’s testimony at the trial. This conclusion necessarily follows because the witness by his appearance on the stand vouches for his testimony then given and thus subjects it to the proper scrutiny of cross-examination and its concomitant right to the presentation of available matter of impeachment in the ascertainment of the truth.” (33 Cal.App.3d at p. 459) The court went on to say: “In view of the possibility existing at the time of its ruling that the statements could contain matters other than those of an impeaching nature, the trial court erred in permitting prosecution discovery without first determining whether such discovery could provide, aside from the impeaching matter, an essential link in a chain of evidence underlying the prosecution’s case in chief and thus lighten its burden in bringing about a conviction of defendant.” (33 Cal.App.3d at p. 460.)
This language from Chavez clearly supports respondent’s contention that the prosecutor would have been entitled to discovery statements with *808impeachment potential. However, the fundamental error in both Bais and Chavez was the trial court’s failure to examine the requested material prior to granting discovery. Thus, neither case definitively answers the question raised in this case, that is, whether, after examination of the material requested to be discovered, the trial court errs in determining that the evidence which might impeach appellant’s alibi witnesses is properly discoverable by the prosecution.
Limited prosecutorial discovery has also been upheld in People v. Wiley (1976) 57 Cal.App.3d 149 [129 Cal.Rptr. 13], and in People v. Ayers (1975) 51 Cal.App.3d 370 [124 Cal.Rptr. 283]; however, neither case involved circumstances identical to those herein. In Wiley the court upheld the trial court’s order permitting prosecutorial discovery of statements a victim made to a defense investigator. The trial court had examined the statement and found nothing in it which would lighten the prosecutor’s burden. In contrast to the instant case, the prosecutor was seeking the statement of his own witness, in order to refresh her memory. The court concluded that the prosecutor used the discovery to make itself more certain of information it already possessed. (Wiley, 57 Cal.App.3d atp. 159.)
In Ayers the trial court ordered statements of defense witnesses to be turned over to the court for screening, and indicated that it would disclose to the prosecutor only portions of the statements bearing on the credibility of the witnesses. On appeal, the court upheld the discovery order as the trial court had screened the material and disclosed only material which the appellate court described as exculpatory or irrelevant.
The trial court in this case relied on Ayers as authority for its decision that impeachment evidence was discoverable after a proper screening. However, further reliance on Ayers is questionable. The appellate court in Ayers explicitly stated that the privilege against self-incrimination is personal to the defendant and does not extend to statements of third parties called as witnesses. (Ayers, 51 Cal.App.3d at p. 379, citing United States v. Nobles (1975) 422 U.S. 225 [45 L.Ed.2d 141, 95 S.Ct. 2160].) Subsequently, the California Supreme Court has recognized an inconsistency between the California interpretation of the privilege against self-incrimination and the trend of the federal high court’s decisions, among them United States v. Nobles. (Allen v. Superior Court, supra, 18 Cal.3d at p. 524.) In Allen the court rests its decision on independent state constitutional grounds to “ ‘put this court on record as being considerably more solicitous of the privilege against self-incrimination than federal law currently requires’ ” (18 Cal.3d at p. 525).
*809In Allen the trial court, on its own motion, ordered disclosure by both prosecution and defense of names of prospective witnesses, so that the names could be read to potential jurors to ascertain if any of them was acquainted with such witnesses. The court proposed to enjoin the People from contacting any individual disclosed by the defense until the name of such person was otherwise disclosed during the course of the trial. The defendant refused and sought a writ of prohibition, contending the order would violate his right against self-incrimination. The thrust of the People’s contention was that Prudhomme should be reexamined in light of subsequent United States Supreme Court cases (e.g. United States v. Nobles, supra, 422 U.S. 225, and Williams v. Florida (1970) 399 U.S. 78 [26 L.Ed.2d 446, 90 S.Ct. 1893]). (Allen, 18 Cal.3d at p. 524.) Allen rejected this request and reaffirmed Prudhomme. The Prudhomme standard was reiterated (at p. 525): “That standard plainly proscribes compelled defense disclosures which ‘conceivably might lighten the prosecution’s burden of proving its case in chief.’ ” In Allen the court noted that “the trend of the federal high court’s decisions on questions of compelled defense disclosure to the prosecution is not wholly consistent with our interpretation of the privilege against self-incrimination. [Citations.]” (18 Cal.3d at pp. 524-525.) The court then acknowledged that the California Constitution is a document of independent force, and grounded its holding on California Constitution, article I, section 15.
The Allen court did not extend or elaborate upon Prudhomme except to make clear that its holding applied to disclosures during trial as well as pretrial disclosures. It characterized the court’s order as requiring “the untimely disclosure to the prosecution of the names of prospective defense witnesses,” and stated that the trial court “did not make the careful inquiry which we mandated in Prudhomme.” (18 Cal.3d at p. 526.) In short, the holding of Allen was to reaffirm Prudhomme and shift its foundation to “the privilege against self-incrimination as set forth in . . . the California Constitution” (id., at p. 527).
It is possible to distinguish between pretrial statements made by alibi witnesses which might only impeach their trial testimony, and pretrial statements of alibi witnesses which not only impeach their own trial testimony but also incriminate the defendant. For example, if an alibi witness gave a pretrial statement detailing a defendant’s culpability and then gave the defendant an alibi at trial, the statement would both impeach the witness and incriminate the defendant. To allow discovery of that inconsistent statement would be to impermissibly lighten the prosecutor’s burden, that is, incriminate the defendant. On the other *810hand, if the alibi witness gave a pretrial statement to the effect that he did not recall the defendant’s whereabouts at the time of the crime and then gave the defendant an alibi at trial, clearly the prior statement would be of value to the prosecution only to cast doubt on the credibility of that witness. Such testimony has the effect of impeaching the witness without incriminating the defendant, as proscribed by Prudhomme.
The statements here divulged to the prosecution, after examination by the court as required by Prudhomme, do not tend to incriminate appellant, but merely challenged the accuracy of the witnesses’ memory and should be discoverable as solely impeaching statements.
I would hold that the court did not err.
A petition for a rehearing was denied February 23, 1979. Scott, J., was of the opinion that the petition should be granted. Respondent’s petition for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied April 12, 1979. Clark, J., and Richardson, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.

In Prudhomme the court states, “Unless the order is confined to information which the defendant intends to disclose at trial, the order could also violate the attorney-client privilege, without regard to its possible incriminatory effect.” (2 Cal.3d at 327, fn. 10.)
Evidence Code section 954 provides that a client has a privilege to refuse to disclose a confidential communication between client and lawyer. Evidence Code section 952 defines confidential communication as information transmitted between client and lawyer in confidence, and includes a legal opinion formed and the advice given by the lawyer in the course of that relationship. The attorney-client privilege does not protect information coming to an attorney from a third person who is not a client unless such person is acting as the client’s agent. (People v. Lee (1970) 3 Cal.App.3d 514, 527 [83 Cal.Rptr. 715].)
The court’s suggestion in Prudhomme that the attorney-client privilege might be applicable to prevent the requested discovery must be read in light of what the prosecutor requested in that case. The prosecutor sought names, addresses, and the expected testimony of the witnesses the defendant intended to call at trial. If the defendant had given the names of those witnesses to his attorney, that list of names would clearly be a communication between attorney and client and as such could come within the scope of the privilege if the defendant did not intend to disclose those names at trial.
In contrast, here the prosecutor was informed by the trial court of statements made by third persons to the defense attorney’s investigator. While a communication between the client and that investigator might come within the scope of the attorney-client privilege, the statements made by third persons are not protected.

Although the Prudhomme court used the language “lighten the prosecution’s burden” in describing the proscribed discovery, it was clearly meant in the context of evidence incriminating the defendant. This same language, used in Bais and other cases hereinafter discussed, must be read as having the same meaning.