NEW BILL WOULD STOP FEDERAL PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT BY PROVIDING FOR OPEN-FILE DISCOVERY

Despite the Department of Justice's new 'open discovery rules' and 'ethics re Brady seminars' many federal prosecutors continue to give inadequate discovery in violation of the prevailing Brady rules. In an attempt to address the 'epidemic of Brady violations' a new bill proposed in Congress by the Center for Prosecutorial Integrity would add muscle to the Brady rules by "...requiring prosecutors to implement an Open-File policy" for the following evidence:

Prosecutor, give Mason the damn discovery!

1. All witness statements would be subject to discovery.
2. All forensic test results would be made available to the defense.
3. All other evidence gathered by the prosecution that exists within the case file of the prosecutor.

It's clear that Brady violations are the leading type of prosecutorial misconduct perpetrated by the Government while prosecuting federal criminal cases.

Clearly prosecutors have an obligation to do their best to seek justice rather than merely to seek convictions yet too often prosecutors have tunnel vision that rejects evidence of innocence. Yet too often prosecutors view any evidence inconsistent with guilt as unreliable. But this is not a game. This is the lives, reputations and future of those who face the entire power of the federal government. Shouldn't they have access to all of the evidence, not just the evidence which prosecutors say is Brady material? As long as prosecutors decide which evidence is Brady material, there'll be incentive for prosecutors to obscure the actual value of evidence for the defense.  

For fair and just outcomes in federal criminal cases in the Middle District of Florida in Tampa and thru out the United States it's essential that all evidence must be given to defense lawyers. Why would prosecutors want anything less if they are interested in providing justice instead of mere convictions? 

The only way to insure that all evidence is made available to the defense is to have a complete Open-file system as the proposed bill would mandate. Then everything within the prosecutor's possession goes straight to the defense. Then let an American jury find a just verdict having seen all the evidence the lawyers provide.