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Dallas County DA Expands Open File Policy

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John Council reports, "New Open-File Policy Includes Appellate Info," in the October 6 Texas Lawyer.When Craig Watkins took over as Dallas County district attorney in January 2007, one of the first big administrative changes he made was instituting an open-file policy that allows criminal-defense attorneys to see a prosecutor?s file before trial. Now he has taken that policy one step further and the implications could be huge, several appellate experts say. As of Sept. 22, Watkins changed his open-file policy to include all post-conviction matters, meaning criminal-defense lawyers can now examine any of the thousands of case files the Dallas County District Attorney?s Office has handled in the past. Watkins says the office still has decades-old case files in storage...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on October 14, 2008 (boomark / email).