(a) In each criminal action in which the defendant has been indicted for commission of an offense defined in section 125.27 of the Penal Law, except those in which the indictment is dismissed or the defendant is acquitted, the clerk of the superior court, within 45 days after the disposition of the action in such court, shall prepare and send to the Court of Appeals a capital case data report in the form prescribed by the Court of Appeals. Data reports shall be prepared by the clerk of the superior court by reviewing the record and upon consultation with the prosecutor and counsel for the defendant. Such data reports shall not constitute a part of the record in the underlying criminal action. The clerk of the superior court shall retain, in a confidential file kept separate from the record in the underlying criminal action, a copy of each such data report sent to the Court of Appeals, and may disclose a data report, or any part thereof, only upon order of the Court of Appeals for exceptional cause shown.

(b) All capital case data reports received by the Court of Appeals shall be compiled into a uniform capital case data report, which may consist of a computer data base containing the information in each capital case data report. Upon request, the uniform capital case data report shall be made available to the parties on appeal to the Court of Appeals in cases where a sentence of death has been imposed.

(c) If the conviction or sentence in such criminal action is subsequently reversed or modified, the capital case data report shall be notated to reflect the reversal or modification. If an intermediate appellate court reverses or modifies the conviction or sentence, that court shall forward a copy of its remittitur to the Court of Appeals within 10 days after entry. If a new disposition in the action ensues in the superior court, the superior court clerk shall prepare a new capital case data report. Upon completion, the superior court clerk shall send the new capital case data report to the clerk of the Court of Appeals with a notice that the new report should be substituted in the data base for the previous report.