Existing law requires the court, in a case involving a conviction of a serious or violent felony resulting in a sentence of 15 years or more, to order that the defendant be provided reasonable access to discovery materials upon the prosecution of a postconviction writ of habeas corpus or a motion to vacate judgment and a showing that good faith efforts to obtain discovery materials from trial counsel were made and were unsuccessful. In a case in which a sentence other than death or life in prison without the possibility of parole has been imposed, if a court has entered a previous order granting discovery pursuant to the above provision, existing law authorizes a subsequent order granting discovery to be made in the court's discretion.
California SB 651 (20192020) — Discovery: postconviction.
Existing law requires the court, in a case involving a conviction of a serious or violent felony resulting in a sentence of 15 years or more, to order that the defendant be provided reasonable access to discovery materials upon the prosecution of a postconviction writ of habeas corpus or a motion to vacate judgment and a showing that good faith efforts to obtain discovery materials from trial counsel were made and were unsuccessful. In a case in which a sentence other than death or life in prison without the possibility of parole has been imposed, if a court has entered a previous order granting discovery pursuant to the above provision, existing law authorizes a subsequent order granting discovery to be made in the court's discretion.
Version chain
The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.
SB 651 Glazer Senate Third Reading By Bauer-Kahan — 77–0 (pass) · lower
Do pass — 6–0 (pass) · upper
Do pass. — 18–0 (pass) · lower
Placed on suspense file — 6–0 (pass) · upper
Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — 7–0 (pass) · upper
Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — 7–0 (pass) · lower
Sponsors
Glazer — primary (person)
Lackey — coauthor (person)
Timeline
The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.
2019-02-22 Introduced. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print. introduction
2019-02-25 From printer. May be acted upon on or after March 27.
2019-02-25 Read first time. reading-1
2019-03-14 Referred to Com. on PUB. S. referral-committee
2019-03-19 Set for hearing April 2.
2019-04-02 From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 7. Noes 0. Page 526.) (April 2). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee
2019-04-05 Set for hearing April 22.
2019-04-22 April 22 hearing: Placed on APPR. suspense file.
2019-05-10 Set for hearing May 16.
2019-05-16 From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 6. Noes 0. Page 1106.) (May 16). committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage
2019-05-16 Read second time. Ordered to third reading. reading-1, reading-2
2019-05-21 Ordered to special consent calendar.
2019-05-23 Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 38. Noes 0. Page 1280.) Ordered to the Assembly. passage, reading-3, reading-1
2019-05-24 In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk. reading-1
2019-06-06 Referred to Com. on PUB. S. referral-committee
2019-06-26 From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 25). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee
2019-08-14 August 14 set for first hearing. Placed on APPR. suspense file.
2019-08-30 From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 18. Noes 0.) (August 30). committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage
2019-09-03 Read second time. Ordered to third reading. reading-1, reading-2
2019-09-09 Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 77. Noes 0. Page 3168.) Ordered to the Senate. passage, reading-3, reading-1
2019-09-09 In Senate. Ordered to engrossing and enrolling.
2019-09-17 Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 2 p.m.
2019-10-02 Approved by the Governor. executive-signature
2019-10-02 Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 483, Statutes of 2019.
Source
OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot 2026-07-01; origin ocd-bill/9bb5aa91-5cb0-4c20-968f-9933735b73b7. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).