Discussion of new discovery laws on Texas blog

09.20.07

The Texas criminal justice blog Grits for Breakfast is the home of a lively discussion today on the recent Justice Project report advocating open file sharing between prosecutors and defense attorneys in criminal cases.

Galveston Judge Susan Criss writes today that she requires both sides to share more documents than the law requires:

I read what you wrote in (Grits for Breakfast) about discovery in criminal cases. I make both the prosecutor & defense attorney enter into an agreed discovery order when they come to court for their status conference to set the trial date. This is either the first or second appearance they make. If they do not sign it, or just one side signs it, I enter the order anyway.

Everyone knows this discovery is ordered in every case. And they know I will enforce it. I got input from several prosecutors & defense attorneys when I drafted it. If they have something unusual that is not provided for in the order, the defense can file a motion & have a hearing.


Read the full blog post, download Criss’s agreement document and make a comment

. (Grits for Breakfast, 09/20/2007)

Download the

Justice Project report

, or

read yesterday’s Innocence Blog post

on open file discovery.

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