Kasim

A jury convicted Jemal M. Kasim of one count of conspiracy to commit aggravated mayhem (Pen. Code, §§ 182, subd. (1), 205) and one count of aggravated mayhem (§ 205). The trial court sentenced Kasim to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

In this consolidated appeal and petition for writ of habeas corpus proceeding, Kasim seeks to overturn his convictions principally on the ground of prosecutorial misconduct, to wit, withholding of critical discoverable evidence that would have impugned the credibility of the prosecution’s two main witnesses, who also were accomplices; presenting knowingly false testimony; and making misrepresentations in closing argument. We issued an order to show cause, appointed a referee and directed the referee to take evidence and make findings of fact concerning 22 areas of inquiry.

After an evidentiary hearing, the referee found the trial prosecutor did not disclose during discovery information, which the prosecutor either knew or should have known, about benefits received by the accomplice-witnesses. Also, the referee found that in light of the prosecutor’s unusual efforts to assist one of the witnesses in avoiding deportation, the…