republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20192020/sb-651.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Discovery: postconviction."
description: "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."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20192020"
identifier: "SB 651"
citation: "California SB 651 (20192020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Discovery: postconviction."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Glazer"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 24
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2019-02-22"
last_action: "2019-10-02"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/9bb5aa91-5cb0-4c20-968f-9933735b73b7"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB651"
source_hash: "e1805a8761268c25995c8b10a3d44ce37091a25561ec4d74b4bf6a3674b7c643"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# 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.

1. **02/22/19 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB651&version=20190SB65199INT)
2. **10/02/19 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB651&version=20190SB65197CHP)
3. **SB651** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB651)
4. **09/11/19 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB651&version=20190SB65198ENR)

## Votes

- Special Consent SB651 — **38–0** (pass) · upper
- 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](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/9bb5aa91-5cb0-4c20-968f-9933735b73b7`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).