About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

68 Fordham L. Rev. 1379 (1999-2000)
The Prosecutor's Ethical Duty to Seek Exculpatory Evidence in Police Hands: Lessons from England

handle is hein.journals/flr68 and id is 1395 raw text is: ARTICLES THE PROSECUTOR'S ETHICAL DUTY TO SEEK EXCULPATORY EVIDENCE IN POLICE HANDS: LESSONS FROM ENGLAND Stanley Z. Fisher INTRODUCTION IN Kyles v. Whitley,' a divided Supreme Court reversed defendant's _capital murder conviction because prosecutors, who had responded to a pretrial defense motion for disclosure by saying that there was no exculpatory evidence of any nature,- had in fact failed to disclose numerous pieces of exculpatory evidence to the defense. The Court found that the undisclosed evidence might have bolstered the defendant's claim that he was innocent, and that the true perpetrator was an uncharged informant named Beanie. In its brief, the State of * Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law. I am grateful to Mike McConville, Chairman, School of Law at the University of Warwick, England, and to his staff for graciously hosting my research visit there in the Spring of 1999. Professor McConville and Roger Leng of that school were both generous with their time, contacts and expertise. I am also indebted to the Crown Prosecutors, police officials, defense solicitors, and others in England who responded to my requests for information with remarkable patience and kindness. Finally, I appreciate the skillful research assistance I received from Colin Kisor, J. Peyton Worley, and Jeffrey Rupp, guidance on source materials from colleagues Robert Bone and Susan Koniak, and helpful editorial suggestions from Eric Blumenson, Dan Givelber, Kevin McMunigal, and Harry Subin. 1. 514 U.S. 419 (1995). 2. ld. at 428 (quoting prosecutor). 3. Non-disclosed items known to the police included: initial eyewitness statements taken by police (arguably closer to fitting Beanie); police records establishing Beanie's initial call to the police; his inconsistent statements to the police, and his suggestion that the police search defendant's rubbish; evidence linking Beanie to other crimes committed at the same grocery store and to an unrelated murder;, and a computer printout of the license numbers of the cars police found in the parking lot on the night of the murder (which did not include defendant's car, although it was the police theory that the killer had left his car in the lot after driving off with the victim's car and the jury had been shown a grainy enlargement of a crime scene photograph that supposedly had defendant's car in the background). See id. at 428-30. Kyles was retried three times after the Supreme Court reversed his conviction, resulting in a hung jury each time. He was released in 1998 after 14 years in prison, coming once within 30 hours of execution. See Pamela Coyle, Tried and Tried Again: Defense 1379

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most