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Dangers of Discovery Changes

Posted 1/17/20

Even as new cases emerge that highlight the flaws in the state’s new bail-reform law, three city District Attorneys with very different constituencies have continued to make the case against another sweeping criminal-justice reform affecting the discovery process, in which prosecutors turn over all relevant information to lawyers for the accused.

One is the requirement that this be done within 15 days of a defendant’s arraignment, which is the process by which he or she is moved from police custody into the jurisdiction of the courts. The speeding of the material’s being turned over to lawyers for the accused was meant to level the playing field by giving defense attorneys full information that might pinpoint weaknesses in the prosecution’s case that would dissuade them from making plea deals that in light of those problems were not fair to their clients.

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