Thursday, November 15, 2012

Does the Constitution Give Pretrial Detainees the Right to Disclosure of Exculpatory Evidence?

As is well known, in Brady v. Maryland, the Supreme Court held that prosecutors have a duty to disclose exculpatory evidence to criminal defendants.  Failure to disclose such information would constitute a violation of the defendant’s right to due process under the Fourteenth Amendment.  However, courts are unclear on whether the Fourteenth Amendment right to the disclosure of exculpatory evidence also extends to pretrial detainees.  As discussed in Circuit Splits, the Eighth Circuit recently touched on the disagreement among the circuits over this issue in a case called Livers v. Schenck.  Go here to see the full post by Circuit Splits.

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