Can a defendant bring a motion for habeas corpus relief if he is denied access to cross-examining a prosecution expert at the "mental state" phase of his trial?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Sapp, 2 Cal.Rptr.3d 554, 31 Cal.4th 240, 73 P.3d 433 (Cal. 2003):

Lindh v. Murphy (7th Cir.1997) 124 F.3d 899, cited by defendant, fails to support his claim of federal constitutional error. In that case, a divided federal appeals court granted habeas corpus relief to a defendant who at the "mental state" phase of his Wisconsin murder trial was precluded from cross-examining a prosecution expert witness about potential sources of bias. The witness, a psychiatrist, testified that the defendant was not suffering from any mental disease when he killed his two victims. At the time of that testimony, the expert witness had felony charges pending against him that could have resulted in the loss of his medical license. As the federal appeals court explained: "[The psychiatrist] may have believed that testimony helping the prosecution in this case, which achieved notoriety throughout Wisconsin, would aid his cause, if only because it was bound to come to the attention of the judge who presided in the prosecution against him." (Id. at p. 901.)

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