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Secret police reports are anathema to justice

Kudos to new Travis County DA Rosemary Lehmberg for altering her department's longstanding policy of making defense lawyers copy police offense reports by hand instead of giving paper or electronic access. Keith Hampton, the legislative chair of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, wrote in the Austin Statesman ("Key legal reform would serve the interests of justice and taxpayers," Jan. 23) about the new policy change, contrasting it with Williamson County, where such reports are kept secret until trial:For years, the court-appointed lawyer would appear in court to read the police report which he would then laboriously write down in his notepad. This elaborate discovery process meant tax-paid hours for lawyers to hand-write reports which today can be transmitted electronically and at virtually no cost...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on January 26, 2009 (boomark / email).