Commonwealth v. Royster ( 1977 )

MANDERINO, Justice,

dissenting.

I join in the dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice Roberts. I agree that only the trial judge and not the prosecution can make a final determination as to what materials the defense is entitled to see, I should like to add, however, that if the prosecution’s file contains any statements of prosecution witnesses, defense counsel must be allowed to see such statements. As we said in Commonwealth v. Grayson, 466 Pa. 427, 429, 353 A.2d 428, 429 (1976):

“whether the statements of the prosecution’s witnesses would have been helpful to the defense is not a question to be determined by the prosecution or by the trial court. They would not be reading the statements with the eyes of a trial advocate engaged in defending a client. Matters contained in a witness’s statement may appear innocuous to some, but have great significance to counsel viewing the statements from the perspective of an advocate for the accused about to cross-examine a witness.”