California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Read, A143253, A146123 (Cal. App. 2016):
Defendant insists this evidence may have sufficed to support a conviction for receiving stolen property, but did not suffice to support his conviction for felony kidnapping and robbery. But, in so arguing, defendant ignores his own admission that, on the day in question, he not only received a ride in the victim's car, he sat in the front seat next to the victim - to wit, the same seat occupied by the person who pistol-whipped the victim. To this record, we hasten to add the fact, already discussed at length above, that the exculpatory value of the missing evidence was, at best, ambiguous. Under these circumstances, we are left to conclude that any error regarding the prosecution's failure to preserve or prevent destruction of the key sheet from the photo lineup must be deemed harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. (See People v. Wright, supra, 39 Cal.3d at p. 591 [concluding that, in light of the remedial procedure used by the trial court to address the prosecution's suppression of evidence, any error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt].)
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