State ex rel. Matthew Becker, Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney, Relator v. the Honorable Gael D. Wood

Summary

The Court made permanent a preliminary writ prohibiting the circuit court from compelling the elected prosecutor and an associate prosecutor to testify at a pretrial hearing about the State's decision to seek the death penalty. It held that the prosecutors' sentencing rationale constituted privileged intangible work product and that the defendant's allegations did not establish a presumption of prosecutorial vindictiveness or provide objective evidence sufficient to shift the burden to the State. The dissent would have quashed the writ because the circuit court acted within its discretion to permit narrowly limited testimony.