In re MARK COLLIN SODERSTEN PART I
Prosecutors' failure to disclose to defense tape-recorded interviews of two eyewitnesses denied defendant fair trial where there was no physical evidence linking defendant to murder; eyewitnesses were key in establishing his identity as the killer; tape - recording of one witness, victim's daughter, showed she was distracted during interview with prosecutor and equivocated as to identity of killer but settled on defendant after persistent questioning; and tape recording of adult eyewitness who had previously implicated defendant in the crime captured him insisting to police amid coercive interrogation that he was too high on drugs to recall anything about the event. Defendant's petition for habeas corpus was not mooted by his death where withheld tapes would have substantially changed how jurors perceived eyewitnesses, and jurors without knowledge of tapes convicted defendant of first degree murder and sentenced him to life in prison.
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