Defendant challenged the denial of his postconviction motion for discovery on appeal. The Court of Appeal found the order was not appealable, but chose to treat the appeal as a writ of mandate and consider the merits of defendant’s contentions. It agreed with the parties that the trial court abused its discretion when it denied the motion. Penal Code section 1054.9 entitles defendant to the discovery materials that he would have had access to at trial. Defendant demonstrated he made previous efforts to obtain these materials, and the record did not preclude the possibility that law enforcement still has them. The Court of Appeal remanded the matter with with directions for the trial court to issue the postconviction discovery order.
