United States v. Robert Eugene Mills and Richard Raymond Pierce

EUGENE A. WRIGHT, Circuit Judge:

On the government’s appeal, two issues are presented: (1) was it error to dismiss two murder indictments for Fifth and Sixth Amendment violations, and (2) if so, should we direct the district court to vacate its order which compelled the government to produce statements of witnesses which it would not call at trial? We conclude: the dismissal of the indictments is reversed and the district court is directed to vacate the discovery order.

I. FACTS

At oral argument we were told that inmates at the Federal Corrections Institution at Lompoc, California, committed at…