The Third Appellate District granted a petition for peremptory writ of mandate in part. The court held that a statute permitting postconviction discovery by persons subject to a sentence of death or life in prison without the possibility of parole was not an invalid amendment to the criminal discovery statutes. The court held further that a trial court abused its discretion in denying such postconviction discovery requests where the defendant sought various materials to which he would have been entitled at trial, including notes taken by out-of-state law enforcement officers, the criminal records of certain trial jurors, and information regarding “street talk” about his case.
Lee Barnett was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. The California Supreme Court affirmed.
