eBook details
- Title: People V. Goliday
- Author : Supreme Court Of California
- Release Date : January 31, 1973
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 62 KB
Description
We undertake here to examine and elaborate on the principles first announced in Eleazer v. Superior Court (1970) 1 Cal. 3d 847 [83 Cal. Rptr. 586, 464 P.2d 42]. Defendant Goliday appeals from convictions in the Superior Court of Los Angeles for two counts each of unlawful sale and possession for sale of secobarbital and amphetamine tablets under Health and Safety Code sections 11912 and 11911. Both at the preliminary hearing and at trial, Goliday's counsel sought information which would help him locate two informer-eyewitnesses to the alleged sale who were neither paid nor regular agents of the police. The prosecution provided only the first names of the informers. For the reasons set forth below, we reverse the convictions for sale of restricted drugs under Health and Safety Code section 11912, and affirm the convictions for the two counts of possession for sale under Health and Safety Code section 11911. We hold that when a person who actively cooperates with the police becomes an eyewitness to a narcotics violation the police and prosecution must "undertake reasonable efforts in good faith to locate the informer so that either party or the court itself . . . could, if it so desired, subpoena him as a witness." (Eleazer v. Superior Court, supra, 1 Cal. 3d at p. 853.)