Court Opinion

ID: 9792971
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:40:13.162808+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:02:07.984117
License: Public Domain

ZLAKET, Justice,
specially concurring:
I joined in the dissent in Youngblood and continue to question the existence of any logical connection between good faith and due process. It seems to me that a legal proceeding is either fundamentally fair or not. To the fullest extent possible, such a determination ought to be based on objective facts rather than subjective states of mind. When evidence has been destroyed, it should not matter that the destruction was innocent rather than malicious, or accidental rather than deliberate. The inquiry must focus instead on whether the defendant is able to receive a fundamentally fair trial without the evidence.
Since a majority of the court has decided otherwise, I will not belabor the point. I must, however, reaffirm my disagreement with the application of a “good faith” analysis in such situations.
In all other respects, I concur in the opinion.