Court Opinion

ID: 9547389
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:46:45.411612+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:17:41.314877
License: Public Domain

LUCAS, J.
I respectfully dissent. In my view, newly adopted Penal Code section 1102.5 is valid and constitutional, offending no legitimate self-incrimination concerns.
Nearly 10 years ago, the United States Supreme Court unanimously upheld a trial court order compelling a criminal defendant to disclose, during trial, relevant portions of a defense investigator’s report for purposes of cross-examining him. (United States v. Nobles (1975) 422 U.S. 225 [45 L.Ed.2d 141, 95 S.Ct. 2160].) Speaking through Justice Powell, the court determined that the investigator’s report (which contained statements by prosecution witnesses) appeared highly relevant to “crucial” credibility issues, that production of the report might substantially enhance the “search for truth,” and that compelled disclosure of the report would not impinge upon defendant’s “personal” privilege against self-incrimination. (Pp. 232-233 [45 L.Ed.2d, p. 150].)
As the high court in Nobles observed, “The [trial] court’s order was limited to statements [in the report] made by third parties who were available as witnesses to both the prosecution and the defense. Respondent [defendant] did not prepare the report, and there is no suggestion that the portions subject to the disclosure order reflected any information that he conveyed to the investigator. The fact that these statements of third parties were elicited by a defense investigator on respondent’s behalf does not con*560vert them into respondent’s personal communications. Requiring their production from the investigator therefore would not in any sense compel respondent to be a witness against himself or extort communications from him.” (Pp. 233-234 [45 L.Ed.2d, p. 151].)
The Nobles court concluded that “the Fifth Amendment privilege against compulsory self-incrimination, being personal to the defendant, does not extend to the testimony or statements of third parties called as witnesses at trial.” (P. 234 [45 L.Ed.2d, p. 151].) This unanimous holding clearly should control disposition of the present case. Accordingly, I cannot join in the majority’s refusal to apply the federal constitutional rule or in its reliance upon state constitutional self-incrimination principles to invalidate Penal Code section 1102.5.
The new section, enacted in 1982 in response to this court’s express refusal to approve any judicially created prosecutorial discovery procedures (see People v. Collie (1981) 30 Cal.3d 43, 54-56 [177 Cal.Rptr. 458, 634 P.2d 534, 23 A.L.R.4th 776]), is carefully framed to meet the standards set forth in Nobles. Disclosure is limited to statements of defense witnesses “other than the defendant,” so no self-incrimination is involved. Moreover, disclosure takes place “after that witness has testified on direct examination at trial,” thereby distinguishing the present procedure from the more controversial area of pretrial criminal discovery. Indeed, under the statute disclosure takes place after the People have closed their case in chief and any defense motions for dismissal or acquittal have been made. In this sense, the discovery contemplated by section 1102.5 is posttrial discovery insofar as the prosecutor is concerned.
In addition, the new section provides the safeguard of an in camera inspection by the trial court to assure that disclosure is properly limited to matters within the scope of direct examination. Moreover, such disclosure may not include any work-product material of the defendant or his counsel. Finally, the prosecution must disclose to defendant any evidence obtained as a consequence of reviewing the defense statements provided for under the section. In short, the Legislature has undertaken a careful balancing of the competing interests involved, with a close view toward accommodating the self-incrimination concerns which so trouble the majority herein. Nonetheless, the majority clings to outmoded constitutional concepts and strikes down section 1102.5 because it has a possible tendency to assist the People in impeaching defense witnesses. Yet, as Nobles squarely holds, examination of the statements of third party witnesses for impeachment purposes does not invoke self-incrimination principles.
The majority misinterprets and misapplies the seminal case of Prudhomme v. Superior Court (1970) 2 Cal.3d 320 [85 Cal.Rptr. 129, 466 P.2d 673], *561by ruling that section 1102.5 violates self-incrimination principles under the California Constitution. First, Prudhomme relied upon an analysis of federal constitutional rights, and we did not have the benefit of subsequent cases, such as Nobles and Williams v. Florida (1970) 399 U.S. 78 [26 L.Ed.2d 446, 90 S.Ct. 1893] (upholding a notice-of-alibi statute), which undoubtedly would have affected our analysis. Second, even under Prudhomme, the statutory provision at issue here would have been upheld. In Prudhomme, we stressed that the self-incrimination privilege forbade compelled disclosure which might lighten the prosecution’s burden of proving its “case in chief.” (2 Cal.3d at p. 326.) As I previously pointed out, section 1102.5 comes into play only after the People have rested their case in chief.
Moreover, as we carefully stated in Prudhomme, “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.” (2 Cal.3d at p. 327, fn. omitted, italics in original.)
I respectfully suggest that section 1102.5 was crafted to meet the foregoing Prudhomme criteria. “Posttrial” disclosure of the pertinent statements of defense witnesses who have already testified on direct examination presents no “substantial hazard” of self-incrimination. Nonetheless, the majority adopts the strict view of an earlier case that “ ‘anything that would be of use to the prosecution in securing a conviction would for that reason be incriminatory and thus privileged. ’ ” (Ante, p. 555, italics added; see People v. Collie, supra, 30 Cal.3d at p. 53.) In other words, as a practical matter, prosecutorial discovery, whether obtained pretrial or during trial, whether judicially or legislatively mandated, and whether or not permissible under the federal Constitution, is absolutely unavailable in this state. The resultant loss from the viewpoint of the administration of justice and the ascertainment of the truth is unfortunate indeed. (See People v. Collie, supra, 30 Cal.3d 43, 65-69 [dis. opn. by Richardson, J.]; Allen v. Superior Court (1976) 18 Cal.3d 520, 527-533 [134 Cal.Rptr. 774, 557 P.2d 65] [dis. opn. by Richardson, J.] 533-537 [dis. opn. by Clark, J.]; cf. People v. Disbrow (1976) 16 Cal.3d 101, 118-121 [127 Cal.Rptr. 360, 545 P.2d 272] [dis. opn. by Richardson, J.].)
The majority’s stance of total prohibition against compelled disclosure, whether pretrial or “posttrial,” is in marked contrast to the extensive discovery developments in the federal and sister state courts. According to a *562recent text on the subject, (1) both the federal courts and a “substantial majority” of state courts require the defendant to give advance notice of his intent to raise an alibi defense; (2) “over half the states” require defendant to give the prosecution advance notice of insanity or similar “mental” defenses; (3) “almost all” statutory or court rules governing defense discovery also include provisions allowing reciprocal prosecution discovery; (4) “approximately ten states” require advance disclosure of every defense to be raised at trial; (5) “approximately fifteen states” require pretrial disclosure of the names and addresses of all defense witnesses to be called at trial, and (6) “about half” of the states requiring such witness disclosure also require disclosure of the prior recorded statements of such witnesses. (2 LaFave & Israel, Criminal Proc. (1984 ed.) § 19.4, pp. 511-524; see also Fed. Rules Crim. Proc., rules 12.1 [notice-of-alibi], 16(b), 28 U.S.C. [reciprocal discovery].) By reason of the majority’s holdings in the present case and prior cases, none of these six valuable discovery or disclosure procedures is available in California, thus creating a devastating “roadblock” in the search for the truth. (See People v. Collie, supra, 30 Cal.3d at p. 69 [dis. opn. by Richardson, J.].)
As Justice Clark observed in his dissenting opinion in Allen, supra, the majority’s reliance upon the “independent state ground” of the state Constitution’s self-incrimination privilege seems based on nothing more than a personal aversion to a perceived increasing conservatism in the decisions of the United States Supreme Court. (18 Cal.3d at p. 537.) Certainly, reliance upon the state Constitution is not based upon any elaborate or reasoned analysis of the policies underlying the self-incrimination privilege. (See, e.g., Collie, supra, 30 Cal.3d at pp. 52-56, where the majority found the entire issue of prosecutorial discovery too “complex” to resolve.)
By reason of the majority’s reliance upon “independent state grounds” under the state Constitution (effectively precluding high court review of our decision), there now exist in this state two separate privileges against self-incrimination: (1) The privilege contained in the Fifth Amendment, applicable to the states by incorporation into the Fourteenth Amendment, as interpreted and applied by the United States Supreme Court, and (2) a second privilege, under the state Constitution, article I, section 15, applicable (presumably) whenever a majority of this court finds itself in disagreement with the United States Supreme Court. I agree with Justice Richardson’s assessment when he stated in his Disbrow dissent (p. 118) that “The very obvious and substantial identity of phrasing in the two Constitutions strongly suggests to me the wisdom, insofar as possible, of identity of interpretation of those clauses. ... [1] [N]o special, unique, or distinctive California conditions exist which justify a departure from a general principle favoring uniformity. In my view, in the absence of very strong countervailing *563circumstances we should defer to the leadership of the nation’s highest court in its interpretation of nearly identical constitutional language, rather than attempt to create a separate echelon of state constitutional interpretations to which we will advert whenever a majority of this court differ from a particular high court interpretation.” (Italics in original, 16 Cal.3d at pp. 118-119.)
As a result of the majority’s reliance upon the “separate” self-incrimination privilege contained in the state Constitution, the prosecution henceforth will be deprived of the opportunity, available in federal and other state courts, of effective impeachment and cross-examination of key defense witnesses. Perjury brought to light under the federal procedure will remain undetected in California courts by reason of today’s decision.
I would uphold the constitutionality of section 1102.5.
Respondent’s petition for a rehearing was denied July 11, 1985.