AB 885, as amended, Ammiano. Discovery: prosecutorial duty to disclose information.
Existing law requires the prosecuting attorney to disclose to the defendant or his or her attorney certain materials and information, including statements of all defendants and any exculpatory evidence, as specified.
This bill would require a court in any criminal trial or proceeding in which the court has determined thatbegin delete there has been an intentional failureend deletebegin insert the prosecuting attorney has failedend insert to disclose certain materials and information, as specified, to instruct the jury that the failure to disclose has occurred and that the jury may consider the failure as circumstantial evidence to support the presence of reasonable doubt.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
Section 1127j is added to the Penal Code, to read:
begin insert(a)end insertbegin insert end insertIn any criminal trial or proceeding in which the
2court determines thatbegin delete there has been an intentional failureend deletebegin insert the
3prosecuting attorney has failedend insert to disclose specified materials and
4informationbegin delete pursuant toend deletebegin insert required under current law, includingend insert
5 Section 1054.1begin delete orend deletebegin insert
andend insert Brady v. Maryland (1963) 373 U.S. 83, the
6court shall instruct the jury that the intentional failure to disclose
7the materials and information occurred and that the jury may
8consider the failure to disclose as circumstantial evidence to
9support the presence of reasonable doubt.
10(b) Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit any other
11remedy available under law.
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