Summary
For more than 40 years, criminal defendants in California have had a right to find out if police testifying against them have a record of lying, excessive force or any other misdeeds that cast doubt on their credibility. But a new state appeals court ruling could remove a bridge to that information in a number of counties, including San Francisco, Alameda and Santa Clara.
The case comes from Los Angeles County, where the Sheriff’s Department compiled a list of about 300 deputies with records of misconduct that might be used against them on the witness stand. The Sheriff’s Department planned to turn the list over to the district attorney so it could notify a defense lawyer if one of the deputies was called as a witness, leading to a closed-door judicial hearing on possible disclosure of the records.
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Stanford Law Professor Robert Weisberg, co-director of the school’s Criminal Justice Center, predicted the issue would again reach the state’s high court, which would have to decide whether the state’s confidentiality laws interfered with a defendant’s constitutional right to a fair trial.
He said the same issue is brewing in other states and could reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
“It’s uncharted territory,” Weisberg said.
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