How have courts treated discovery in a death penalty case?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Lucas, 12 Cal.4th 415, 48 Cal.Rptr.2d 525, 907 P.2d 373 (Cal. 1995):

At trial, defendant sought discovery pursuant to Murgia v. Municipal Court (1975) 15 Cal.3d 286, 124 Cal.Rptr. 204, 540 P.2d 44 in an effort to show the prosecutor charged special circumstances and was seeking the death penalty due to purposeful, invidious discrimination. The trial court directed the district attorney's office to provide discovery regarding its capital charging policies, and there was a hearing on the matter. The prosecutor's supervisor in the district attorney's office also testified regarding the office's charging practices and his reasons for deciding whether to seek the death penalty in this and a number of other recent cases. Much of this testimony occurred at a hearing held after the guilt verdicts were rendered, but before the penalty trial. The court concluded the district attorney's office had specific guidelines for making a capital charging decision which it had followed without caprice in this case. The court declared the capital charging decision to have been "fair and equitable."

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