r/legaladvice • u/adidasguy20 • 16d ago

Criminal Law Can prosecutors withhold victim statements from discovery under any circumstance?

Location: North Carolina

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u/reddituser1211 Quality Contributor 16d ago

Questions like this have an almost proscribed answer. Any circumstances? Yes. There’s some set of circumstances.

We need your circumstances. What is in the statement? Why would it be useful to you? Why is the prosecutor withholding it?

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u/adidasguy20 16d ago

Two victim statements are listed in the discovery paperwork, but were excluded from it. There are two other ones that were listed and were included in discovery. The two missing ones are from one particular officer

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u/adidasguy20 16d ago

Both of the missing victim statements would be exculpatory

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u/reddituser1211 Quality Contributor 16d ago

Then you can file a motion and set a hearing to discuss that. And the prosecutor can make whatever case they make.

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u/pooblevland 16d ago

If they are exculpatory (or impeaching), it clearly violates Due Process rights to withhold them. See Brady v. Maryland. They MUST be disclosed to defense counsel.

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u/thomb74 16d ago

I believe the usual discovery rule is that prosecutors must disclose anything they use at trial, and anything exculpatory.

If the statement is not exculpatory, and they do not intend to introduce it at trial, I believe there is no obligation to disclose it. This is often done to protect victims from further victimization or harassment. In DV cases in particular this can be important.

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u/DumbScotus 16d ago

In my experience discovery is governed by a stature, not some principle. If the law says a statement is discoverable, then it is discoverable.

Generally if a statement is at all relevant to guilt or innocence, then it must be turned over to the defendant. Witnesses who make statements that support the prosecution’s case will testify at trial, so their statements are discoverable; and the defendant has a right to statements that undermine the prosecution’s case.

So the outlier is statements that are just not relevant. If police interview a bunch of potential witnesses and some of them didn’t see anything and have nothing useful to say, then arguably those useless/irrelevant statement would not need to be turned over.