The government’s production of millions of pages in discovery is no longer relegated to white collar cases. We cannot allow the government to coerce individuals into guilty pleas because they lack the financial resources to review millions of pages produced in response to a discovery request.

Forensic software is used in the criminal justice context to make assertions about the presence and nature of DNA, to deploy police resources to certain areas, or to guide bail and sentencing determinations. Software, however, is far from impartial or infallible. The authors explain why law and public policy require disclosure to the public and independent experts of the software source code and other software development records, including training data sets.

The importance of a defense lawyer having access to documents in the early stages of trial preparation is hard to overstate. When documents the defense needs are in the possession of a third party, however, defense counsel faces an unjustified barrier to obtaining the documentary evidence. The authors address the outdated jurisprudence that has created an obstacle for defense counsel and discuss the reform advocated by commentators and judges.

Nation’s Criminal Defense Bar Welcomes Criminal Justice Reforms Adopted by the State of New York -- Washington, DC (Apr. 1, 2019) – On Sunday, March 31, Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Senate and Assembly reached agreement concerning multiple, significant pretrial criminal justice reforms as part of the state’s FY 2020 budget package. These changes will take effect in 2020. The reforms concern speedy access to trial, discovery in criminal cases, and bail and pretrial release.