Justices Limit Defense Access to Search Warrants
Defense attorneys do not have the right to review search warrants that they have challenged, the California Supreme Court has ruled.
Instead, the warrants should be submitted to a trial judge for a closed-door review, and the defense will have to abide by the judicial determination, the justices said in a decision released Monday.
The 6-1 ruling involved a Marysville case, People vs. Hobbs, in which the defendant challenged a search warrant that led to her arrest on drug charges.
The defense argued that it should have access to everything in the warrant except the name of a confidential informant.
But the justices disagreed.
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