MATTER OF DIAZ v. Lukash

OPINION OF THE COURT

Chief Judge Kaye.

On this appeal, we must decide whether petitioner, an inmate on California’s death row, has a "substantial interest” in certain records of the Nassau County Medical Examiner, so that he may inspect them. We conclude that the Appellate Division applied an erroneous legal standard and that in the circumstances presented, petitioner does have a substantial interest, as a matter of law, in at least some of the requested records. Accordingly, we reverse the dismissal of the petition and remit for further proceedings.

I

In March 1981, Robert Rubane Diaz, a…