Craig

These proceedings have been consolidated. They involve the same discovery order made in a criminal action. We issued an alternative writ of mandate in each proceeding for the purpose of determining, the specific attacks by the respective petitioners upon certain portions of the trial court’s order for discovery.

*420 Petitioner Mario J. Craig, who is charged with a violation of Penal Code section 187 (murder), filed a motion for pretrial discovery requesting discovery of oral and written statements made by any witness to any inspector or attorney of the Alameda County District Attorney’s office.

The trial court granted the request for the statements of witnesses “conditioned upon the simultaneous disclosure to the People of any similar oral or written statements made by said witnesses to representatives of the Defendant.”

Petitioner Mario J. Craig contends that the conditional order of discovery with respect tó witnesses’ statements made to his representatives was improper as violative of his privilege against self-incrimination and of the attorney-client privilege. The People, as petitioners, contend that the grant of Craig’s request for witnesses’ statements to…

I concur.

I am in complete agreement with Presiding Justice Molinari’s conclusions in respect of the superior court’s order permitting defense discovery of certain juvenile court findings concerning earlier misdeeds of prospective witnesses at the trial.

But otherwise my concurrence rests wholly on the rule of Prudhomme v. Superior Court, 2 Cal.3d 320 [ 85 Cal.Rptr. 129 , 466 P.2d 673 ], by which this court is bound. Auto Equity Sales, Inc. v. Superior Court, 57 Cal.2d 450, 455 [ 20 Cal.Rptr. 321 , 369 P.2d 937 ], mandates that: “The decisions of [the Supreme Court] are binding upon and must be followed by all the state courts of California.” Nevertheless, I am of the opinion that Prudhomme states erroneous Fifth Amendment law and fails to follow the United States Supreme Court and its own previous decisions.

Because of my deep respect for the court which authored Prudhomme , it would be preferable for me to simply concur in toto with the principal opinion, without elaboration. But it seems to be the clear policy of this state that its intermediate reviewing courts record their disagreement with existing law, at least in areas of public importance such as this. (See 6 Witkin,…

I concur in the decision denying the People’s application for a writ in proceeding 1 Civil 37380.1 dissent from so much of the decision as grants the petitioner relief in proceeding 1 Civil 37300 from the condition imposed by the trial court. In my opinion the majority opinion has failed to distinguish between discovery of information which the defense has secured from persons known to and interviewed by the prosecution, and information known only to the defense obtained from witnesses unknown to the prosecution. The court is not directing the defense to disclose any privileged matter. The witnesses concerned are those who have already given oral or written • statements to either investigators or attorneys of the district attorney’s office. The prosecution is free to reinterview the witnesses and ascertain from them whether they were interviewed by the defense and if so what they said. If such matters were incorrectly reported by the witness, the prosecution may be in the dark about some impeaching material or some statement favorable to the defense which was elicited in the defense interview. The release of that information is not self-incriminatory, but is necessary for the…

These proceedings have been consolidated. They involve the same discovery order made in a criminal action. We issued an alternative writ of mandate in each proceeding for the purpose of determining the specific attacks by the respective petitioners upon certain portions of the trial court's order for discovery.

Petitioner Mario J. Craig, who is charged with a violation of Penal Code section 187 (murder), filed a motion for pretrial discovery requesting discovery of oral and written statements made by any witness to any inspector or attorney of the Alameda County District Attorney's office.

The trial court granted the request for the statements of witnesses "conditioned upon the simultaneous disclosure to the People of any similar oral or written statements made by said witnesses to representatives of the Defendant." [1]

Petitioner Mario J. Craig contends that the conditional order of discovery with respect to witnesses' statements made to his representatives was improper as violative of his privilege against self-incrimination and of the attorney-client privilege. The People, as petitioners, contend that the grant of Craig's request for witnesses'…