What is discovery in a Criminal Case?

DC Criminal attorney explains criminal discovery Good afternoon ladies and gentleman. My name is Mark Rollins. I’m an attorney here in Washington DC. I also practice in State of Maryland. My primary area of practice is criminal law. Today, you’re asking yourself, “How do I know if I should plead? What does the state or the government have against me in my criminal case? How do I find this out?” Well, in DC, there is an exchange of information by the prosecutor. This process is called discovery, criminal discovery. Basically, when the parties exchange information, there may be some requirements that defense give to the prosecutor such as the alibi defense, this process whereby the government or the state gives the information to the attorney. This information is typically police reports, also can include photographs, other raw evidence of the state or the government intends to use at trial against you. All of this information should be evaluated before you decide whether you should take a plea or you should go to trial. That’s why it’s imperative that you have a good connection with your attorney because if you decide that you want to go to trial, you need to know and so that you can assist your defense lawyer, you need to know exactly what they have. You should be requesting and say, “Hey, what’s this discovery? What is it about? Let me see what they have. What did the police officer say I did?” All this information would be in that discovery. In Maryland, they actually have open discovery. In DC, it’s a little bit harder in that defense has to request it and then they give us what they think is necessary. There may be situations where the discovery, the government has to give over additional discovery that institute. In other words, someone else may have done the crime. If someone else has done the crime, the government knows about that and they should give you that information as well. Well, I hope this helps and again if you want to contact a criminal lawyer, you can feel free to contact us. We’ll be happy to discuss your case with you. The number’s on the screen and also the website is also on the screen. You can also download books on our website that help you and help you understand some of the discovery issues. All right, thanks for watching and please subscribe to our channel. Thanks.

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