In Re the People of the State of Colorado v. Keevin Bell, II

Summary

The court held that a postconviction court may order the prosecution to provide an indigent defendant with a free duplicate of pretrial discovery when the defendant identifies specific potentially meritorious errors and specific facts in the discovery that could substantiate them. That authority follows from the constitutional requirements of effective assistance of appointed postconviction counsel and due process, even though Colorado's general discovery rules do not independently authorize postconviction discovery. The court also held that counsel need not use the Colorado Criminal Justice Records Act, which may permit discretionary disclosure and redaction, to obtain constitutionally essential discovery.