About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

39 Cardozo L. Rev. 59 (2017-2018)
The Local Rules Revolution in Criminal Discovery

handle is hein.journals/cdozo39 and id is 69 raw text is: 









          THE LOCAL RULES REVOLUTION IN CRIMINAL
                                DISCOVERY

                                Daniel  S. McConkiet



      Over the last few decades, federal district court judges throughout the country
have  used local rules to greatly expand pretrial criminal disclosure obligations,
especially for prosecutors. These local criminal discovery rules both incentivize
prosecutors  to act  as  ministers of justice and  empower   judges  to  manage
prosecutorial disclosures. This quiet revolution is now well underway, and the time
has  come  to  amend   the Federal Rules  of Criminal  Procedure  to bring  these
innovations to all the districts.
      Commentators   have long recognized that neither Supreme Court precedent nor
 the Federal Rules effectively require prosecutors to provide the defense with enough
 discovery to properly prepare for plea negotiations and trial. Nor do they empower
 judges to effectively monitor prosecutors' discovery decisions. Reformers have largely
failed to revolutionize discovery on a national scale, but individual districts, by
passing local discovery rules, have waged small battles to great effect.
      These rules require prosecutors to turn over more discovery earlier in the case.
 They expand  the scope of mandatory  prosecution  discovery beyond Rule  16 and
 Brady; they accelerate the timing of discovery; and they require the parties to work
 together to arrive at discovery stipulations.
      The rules also greatly enhance the role of judges and empower them to monitor
 the discovery phase of the case. Through specific discovery rules, stipulations, and
 discovery management  orders, the rules greatly expand judges' grounds for ordering
 discovery and imposing sanctions. They also give judges more opportunities to raise
 and manage  discovery issues at mandatory discovery conferences. Finally, the rules
 expand (and delimit) discovery motion procedures.
      Increasing prosecutorial disclosure obligations and expanding the power  of
judges  over pretrial discovery  could improve   the quality  of criminal justice


    t Assistant Professor, Northern Illinois University College of Law, former Assistant United
 States Attorney (Sacramento), 2008-2013. I am grateful for the assistance of Lisa Bernstein and
 her students in the University of Chicago Law School's Legal Scholarship Workshop. I also
 thank the participants in Crimfest July 2015, who gave feedback on a very early version of this
 piece. I would also like to thank Alan Boudreau, Aliza Cover, Marc Falkoff, Brandon Garrett,
 Susan Klein, Heidi Kuehl, Jeffrey Parness, and Laurel Rigertas. Finally, I thank my research
 assistants David White and Whitney Wilkinson. All remaining errors are my own.


59

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.

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most