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Discovery policy survey

By ambimb

Houston criminal defense attorney Paul B. Kennedy wants to know: Does your local prosecutor give you access to or copies of offense/police reports prior to trial? Apparently in some TX jurisdictions, defense attorneys don’t even get a look at such reports until the officer who wrote them gets on the stand to testify. How does it work in your jurisdiction? Answer in the comments on Paul’s site… The larger question this raises is how can a prosecutor withhold such statements in light of Brady? How is it consistent with the requirements of fair trial and due process to withhold such vital evidence until the officer testifes? How can a defense attorney effectively cross an officer when the attorney is only seeing the officer’s report for the first time when the officer takes the stand? continue to full post

Full post as published by Public Defender Stuff on February 06, 2009 (boomark / email).