# In Re Steele

> California Supreme Court · March 8, 2004 · 10 Cal. Rptr. 3d 536

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9797743

## Case

- **Full name:** In Re RAYMOND EDWARD STEELE on Habeas Corpus
- **Court:** California Supreme Court
- **Decided:** March 8, 2004
- **Citations:** 10 Cal. Rptr. 3d 536; 32 Cal. 4th 682; 2004 Daily Journal DAR 2981; 85 P.3d 444; 2004 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 2033; 2004 Cal. LEXIS 1922
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Werdegar
- **Judges:** Chin, Werdegar
- **Cited by:** 194 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9797743

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- noting the “prosecution cannot reasonably be held responsible for evidence in the possession of all governmental agencies, including those not involved in the investigation or prosecution of the case”

## Opinion text

WERDEGAR, J .
I concur entirely in the majority opinion, with one exception: I find its suggestion that a petitioner having an execution date “may, and usually should” (maj. opn., ante, at p. 692, fn. 1), file any discovery motion in this court in the first instance not readily inferable from Penal Code section 1054.9. Notwithstanding its persuasive rationale for directing petitioners generally to file discovery motions in the superior court in the first instance (maj. opn., ante, at pp. 691-692), the majority seemingly fails to recognize that the filing of a discovery motion directly in this court would be more expeditious in only those exceptional instances when the motion is patently meritorious or nonmeritorious as a matter of law. At any rate, however sound the suggestion as a matter of judicial convenience, and irrespective of whether the Judicial Council might have the power to adopt suitable rules pertaining thereto, the suggestion—which, in not even purporting to bind petitioners, seems scarcely likely to “expedite” in any reliable way “our consideration of any final challenges to the judgment” (id. at p. 692, fn. 1)—is one that more appropriately should be implemented by legislative amendment.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9797743. Public record. Not legal advice.