People v. Meredith
California Supreme Court
631 P.2d 46, 29 Cal.3d 682, 175 Cal.Rptr. 612 (1981)
- Written by Angela Patrick, JD
Facts
The police arrested Michael Meredith (defendant) for killing and robbing David Wade. The police also arrested Frank Earl Scott (defendant), believing he had conspired with Meredith. Attorney James Schenk represented Scott. Scott told Schenk that he had picked up Wade’s wallet at the crime scene and brought it home, where he had tried to burn it in his kitchen sink. Scott tossed the partially burned wallet in a burn barrel behind his house. Schenk hired an investigator to look for the wallet. The investigator found the wallet in the burn barrel as described and brought it to Schenk. Schenk gave the wallet to the police, saying only that he thought it had belonged to Wade. The location where the wallet had been found was critical to the prosecution’s case against Scott. Both Schenk and the investigator were subpoenaed to testify at Scott’s preliminary hearing. Schenk admitted that the investigator had given him the wallet but refused to say more, asserting attorney-client privilege. Ultimately, when threatened with contempt, Schenk confirmed that his client, Scott, was his sole information source regarding the wallet’s location. At trial, the investigator testified that he had found the wallet in the barrel behind Scott’s house and that Schenk had told him where to look for it. Scott was convicted of murder and robbery. The appellate court affirmed Scott’s conviction. Scott appealed to the California Supreme Court, arguing that the investigator’s testimony about the wallet should have been excluded because that knowledge resulted from a privileged attorney-client communication.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Tobriner, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 803,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.