Justices Limit Defense Access to Search Warrants
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SAN FRANCISCO — 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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