California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Le, D057392, Super. Ct. No. SCD212126 (Cal. App. 2012):
The record also shows the defense was aware of the existence of fingerprint evidence on the beer bottle and chose not to examine that evidence or conduct its own investigation. (See People v. Salazar (2005) 35 Cal.4th 1031, 1048-1049 [noting that "[a]lthough the prosecution may not withhold favorable and material evidence from the defense, neither does it have the duty to conduct the defendant's investigation," and further noting that "[i]f the material evidence is in a defendant's possession or is available to a defendant through the exercise of due diligence, then, at least as far as evidence is concerned, the defendant has all that is necessary to ensure a fair trial, even if the prosecution is not the source of the evidence."].)
Under the circumstances, we conclude the trial court's decision to delay the trial in order to give the defense an opportunity to investigate the fingerprint evidence, but not to give the requested jury instruction, was a proper exercise of the court's discretion. (See People v. DePriest (2007) 42 Cal.4th 1, 38-39 [concluding trial court properly allowed shoeprint evidence to be admitted shortly before trial because the prosecutor informed both the court and defense counsel of the existence of such evidence immediately after it was acquired and because there was no evidence the acquisition of such evidence was unreasonably delayed, and concluding the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the defense's request for a continuance with respect to such evidence because the "record supports the court's determination that defendant had ample time and resources to [investigate the shoe print evidence] after trial began."]; see also People v. Panah (2005) 35 Cal.4th 395, 459-460 [concluding there was no statutory violation when pathologist
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prepared on the eve of testimony a new report after reexamining microscopic slides at request of prosecution].)
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