In re Steele

In In re Steele (2004) 32 Cal.4th 682, the California Supreme Court interpreted and explained section 1054.9 in both procedural and substantive terms. The keystone of section 1054.9 is that a defendant who is sentenced to death or life in prison without the possibility of parole and is seeking habeas corpus relief is entitled to those materials to which he or she would have been entitled at the time of trial, including materials that the defendant did not receive. (Steele, supra, at pp. 693-696.) Thus, a convicted capital defendant is not only entitled to materials that were provided at trial, which the defendant can show have since been lost, but also to materials to which the defendant was actually entitled at the time of trial and did not receive, and to materials that the prosecution would have been obligated to provide had there been a specific request at trial. (Id. at pp. 695-696.) Section 1054.9 requires: "the trial court, on a proper showing of a good faith effort to obtain the materials from trial counsel, to order discovery of specific materials currently in the possession of the prosecution or law enforcement authorities involved in the investigation or prosecution of the case that the defendant can show either (1) the prosecution did provide at time of trial but have since become lost to the defendant; (2) the prosecution should have provided at time of trial because they came within the scope of a discovery order the trial court actually issued at that time, a statutory duty to provide discovery, or the constitutional duty to disclose exculpatory evidence; (3) the prosecution should have provided at time of trial because the defense specifically requested them at that time and was entitled to receive them; or (4) the prosecution had no obligation to provide at time of trial absent a specific defense request, but to which the defendant would have been entitled at time of trial had the defendant specifically requested them." (Steele, supra, 32 Cal.4th at p. 697.) Although it is clearly more than just a "file reconstruction statute," section 1054.9 "does not allow 'free-floating' discovery asking for virtually anything the prosecution possesses." (Steele, supra, at pp. 693, 695.) Furthermore, to obtain postconviction discovery under section 1054.9, the defendant must identify the materials he or she seeks with specificity and show they fall into one of the categories of materials to which the defendant would have been entitled to at trial. (Steele, supra, at p. 688.)In Steele the Supreme Court pointed out that section 1054.9 is broader than a file reconstruction statute and allows discovery of material " 'to which trial counsel was legally entitled.' " (Steele, supra, 32 Cal.4th at p. 694.) Section 1054.9 "does not limit postconviction discovery to materials the defendant actually possessed to the exclusion of materials the defense should have possessed. If the Legislature had intended to limit the discovery to file reconstruction it could easily have said so." (Id. at p. 693, ) In setting forth what postconviction discovery a capital defendant is entitled to under section 1054.9 beyond file reconstruction, the Steele court listed materials "the prosecution should have provided at time of trial because they came within the scope of a discovery order the trial court actually issued at that time, a statutory duty to provide discovery, or the constitutional duty to disclose exculpatory evidence. (Steele, supra, at p. 697, )