I am battling this right now in a local criminal case. We have fought half a dozen battles in front of the judge over information that we need that the prosecution has. Slowly, like an iceberg melting, the prosecution is dripping some of th...e information on us. It is like a strange dance, we know that they know that there if information that is helpful to our case. But they get to decide what we are going to get. The best we are getting from the judge is that if it comes out during the trial that they withheld exculpatory information, he will make a ruling then. To say the least, the prosecution is not intimidated by the court's position and doing whatever they want. My client is facing the at least twenty years of prison time, and they are playing cat and mouse. It is unbelievably frustrating that the system perpetuates the prosecutions behavior. And now we have a new rule to contend with, we have to disclose our impeachment evidence against the accuser and let the court decide if we can present it. So, not only is my client unable to mount a complete defense, the prosecutor gets to attack our defense before we put it on in court. It is painful to watch our rights - yes, our, all of our, rights get dismantled in this way in the name of expedient justice where the ends justify the means.
See this article that appeared in the Knoxville News for more information and the frightening results of a national study.
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