Discovery in Colorado Criminal Cases
"I had a case where the Police has lost a crucial piece of evidence. My client was charged with Second Degree Murder. The case against him was not strong and he didn't do it, and we needed the piece of evidence. The State didn't tell us they had lost the evidence, we asked for it and made them tell us and the Court they lost the evidence. The result was a dismissal with prejudice of all charges. Through hard work, and digging into the record, a client went free."
Miller Leonard
Discovery is the exchange of information by parties in a case. In the context of Colorado Criminal cases, discovery is the process by which a defendant obtains the information held by the government, such as police reports, witness statements, lab reports and any other information pertaining to the offense.
Colorado has what is called automatic discovery which means that the State and the Defendant should exchange certain information without the Court getting involved. This rule is found in Colorado Rule of Criminal Procedure 16. The purpose behind Rule 16 is to make criminal trials about the truth and justice rather than about surprise and tactics. While this is the purpose of Rule 16, an experienced Colorado Criminal Defense Attorney knows that you often have to shake a tree to get information.
If Rule 16 requires automatic disclosure of information, what else do you look for? One area that often is needed is information called "impeachment information." This is simply information that tends to cut down a witnesses truthfulness, such as prior convictions, promises made to them by the government, or bad acts. While a DA should turn this over without filing such a motion, through years of experience, a Colorado Criminal Defense Attorney knows that it is often up to them to make the government produce this kind of information.
Other motions that may need to filed are to preserve evidence for testing, motions to disclose confidential informant identify, or motions to dismiss a case due to the loss of evidence. For these reasons, it is absolutely critical to have an attorney who will turn over every rock to find out about your case.
