What are the requirements for a district attorney to disclose to all defendants in a criminal case where there are two or more defendants accused of complicity in the same crime?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Westmoreland, 129 Cal.Rptr. 554, 58 Cal.App.3d 32 (Cal. App. 1976):

We do not believe that these distinctions are significant. (See People v. Ruthford, supra, 14 Cal.3d 399, 406, 121 Cal.Rptr. 261, 534 P.2d 1341.) As we see it, the decisions we have reviewed lead, inescapably, to the following rules. Where, as here, two or more persons are accused, and then charged, of complicity in the same offense, and where the district attorney plans to call one of them as a prosecution witness, he must disclose to all other defendants any offer he has made to the prospective witness concerning a plea of [58 Cal.App.3d 47] guilty to a lesser offense, or other lenient treatment, regardless of his reasons for making the offer. The district attorney also must disclose to all defendants any discussions he may have had with the potential witness as to the possibility of leniency in exchange for favorable testimony even though no offer actually was made or accepted. Second, the district attorney must correct any false or misleading testimony that he knows a prosecution witness has created as to discussions or offers of leniency, or other inducements for testifying, regardless as to whether he was any affirmative part in creating the false or misleading impressions.

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