What is the scope of a defendant's in camera review of an in-camera review of a prosecutor's file regarding an informant's past experiences with dangerous drugs?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Luttenberger, 265 Cal.Rptr. 690, 50 Cal.3d 1, 784 P.2d 633 (Cal. 1990):

Finally, the majority's unspecified concerns about a "fishing expedition" hardly seem warranted. Here the defendant requested in camera review of "any information disclosed or discoverable ... as to the informant's past experiences with dangerous drugs, any police reports of incidents [filed] against [informant], pay vouchers, if there were any, for [informant's] services to the police department, any [promises or] representations ... that were made to him." The requests were specifically described and narrow in scope. As long as materiality and specificity are required of discovery requests, as here, a defendant can be prevented from engaging in the overbroad discovery that might give him access to everything in the prosecutor's file. (See Ballard v. Superior Court (1966) 64 Cal.2d 159, 167, 49 Cal.Rptr. 302, 410 P.2d 838 [defendant's discovery request must be made with "some degree of specificity" and with "plausible justification"].)

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