Directly with the Department 17 clerk, Darlene Aguilera
You should include a self-addressed stamped envelope with your motion, and the Court will mail the order. If you do not include a self-addressed envelope, it will be sent to CCD along with their copy of the order.
Yes, your documents should be sealed and clearly marked ‘Confidential’. On several occasions in the past, documents arrived unsealed and were found on a clerk’s desk.
These documents are confidential and should be clearly labeled and treated as such by counsel.
CCD has gone to great lengths to explain the process to both counsel and to the retained experts and investigators in non-death penalty cases.
The rules are the same in death penalty cases. Although emergency fiscal assistance should be uncommon in death penalty cases, situations may exist that warrant additional unexpected expenditures.
If that is the case, your emergency requests should be filed with the Court just like your “regular” requests. It is the dual role of counsel and the expert/investigator to monitor expenditures and to plan accordingly.
Absent extraordinary circumstances, after-the-fact authority will not be approved.