YOU Wednesday Watch On InjustIce YOU

Bill Bastuk Jeffrey Deskovic

Editor

Dannielle Hille

15 August 2012
vol. 2/No 64

IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU!

President ICH/Y

Communications Coordinator

Prominent Criminal Justice Attorney Addresses DA Failure to Comply with Rules Governing Disclosure of Evidence
A July 30, 2012 article in the New York Law Journal by Joel Stashenko highlights an article by the New York Bar Association Criminal Justice Sector Chair Marvin Schecter that warns of district attorneys consistent violation of the US Supreme Court Brady rule governing disclosure of evidence by the prosecutor to the defense attorney representing the accused. Manhattan defense attorney Marvin Schechter, in a "Message From the Chair" in the summer quarterly newsletter of the state bar's Criminal Justice Section, contends that "From its inception, case history shows that Brady [v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83] has been continually violated, thus undermining the popular, though quaint notion of fair play based on the prosecutor's dual obligation to the public as well as the accused, to be fair and honest in the presentation of evidence and in reviewing material which is favorable to the defendant." Schechter writes that "the slow trickle of uncovered Brady violations spawned by DNA exonerations has become a steady, flowing stream of egregious cases." And he observes that "assistant district attorneys do not emerge from law school with a genetic disposition to hiding Brady material. Instead this is something that is learned and taught." That allegation drew an immediate response from the District Attorneys Association of the State of New York (DAASNY). "DAASNY condemns these sentiments in the strongest possible terms," the group said in a letter to state bar president Seymour James. "We ask the [state bar] to clarify that it is not the official position of our statewide bar association that district attorneys are teaching their assistants to violate the constitution." The July 25 letter was signed by the Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., DAASNY's president, and Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore, its immediate past president. "Our colleagues in DAASNY believe that criminal defense is an honorable profession," states the letter from the district attorneys. "We trust there is similar respect and support from our bar leaders for the thousands of public prosecutors throughout New York state." James responded in a July 26 letter that Schechter's column "was clearly an expression of the author's own personal opinion." "It was not offered and cannot reasonably be interpreted as an expression of the opinion of the State Bar Association," wrote James, who is attorney-in-charge of criminal practice for the Legal Aid Society of New York City. To read the full article D.A.s Challenge Claim by Bar Section Head They Undermine 'Brady', published in the New York Law Journal on July 30, 2012, click HERE

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Officers- Bill Bastuk- Founder Roseanne Corrigan- Vice President Steering Committee- Paul LaBarber- Art Directions, Etc. Alice Green- Center for Law and Justice Melanie Trimble- NYCLU Gabriel Sayegh- Drug Policy Alliance NY Lisa Schreibersdorf- Brooklyn Defender Services Don Thompson- ETKS Defense Pam Booker- Prison Families of NY Jeffrey Deskovic- The Jeffrey Deskovic Foundation For Justice David Kaczynski- New Yorkers for Alternatives to the Death Penalty