The Tedious World of Discovery Issues
was the focus of today's joint pretrial hearing. Both defenses filed--as recently as this morning--more motions requesting that Judge Mike Lynch order the State to provide them their own copies of specific pieces of evidence they believe are exculpatory. If they can't get their own copies, the defenses feel they are entitled to at least see ALL the State's evidence qualifying as discovery. I'll go through the details of the defenses' request list in the next post.
Although Judge Lynch told the defenses that 90 percent of what they're asking for "won't see the light of day at trial" (because of relevance issues) and implied that there are no real surprises left at this point, Joe James Sawyer told reporters that he, as the defense lawyer, needs to and deserves to go through 100 percent of the evidence because what is or is not relevant discovery material can be a matter of opinion.
The courtroom had been rearranged since the last hearing to accommodate both defendants and their attorneys so they didn't all have to crowd around one defense table. Michael Scott gave his wife Jeannine a quick smile before sitting down with his lead attorney, Carlos Garcia and co-counsel, Dexter Gilford. Robert Springsteen sat at another table with attorneys Joe James Sawyer and Alexandra Gauthier. Gauthier did almost all the talking today, occasionally conferring with Sawyer, as well as Garcia (because many issues are the same for both Springsteen and Scott.)
Prosecutors Gail Van Winkle and Efrain De La Fuente had their own table set up in front of the jury box, while their clerks and other staff sat in the jury box itself.
I got another courthouse-area parking meter ticket today for only 15 minutes short. Aargh!
was the focus of today's joint pretrial hearing. Both defenses filed--as recently as this morning--more motions requesting that Judge Mike Lynch order the State to provide them their own copies of specific pieces of evidence they believe are exculpatory. If they can't get their own copies, the defenses feel they are entitled to at least see ALL the State's evidence qualifying as discovery. I'll go through the details of the defenses' request list in the next post.
Although Judge Lynch told the defenses that 90 percent of what they're asking for "won't see the light of day at trial" (because of relevance issues) and implied that there are no real surprises left at this point, Joe James Sawyer told reporters that he, as the defense lawyer, needs to and deserves to go through 100 percent of the evidence because what is or is not relevant discovery material can be a matter of opinion.
The courtroom had been rearranged since the last hearing to accommodate both defendants and their attorneys so they didn't all have to crowd around one defense table. Michael Scott gave his wife Jeannine a quick smile before sitting down with his lead attorney, Carlos Garcia and co-counsel, Dexter Gilford. Robert Springsteen sat at another table with attorneys Joe James Sawyer and Alexandra Gauthier. Gauthier did almost all the talking today, occasionally conferring with Sawyer, as well as Garcia (because many issues are the same for both Springsteen and Scott.)
Prosecutors Gail Van Winkle and Efrain De La Fuente had their own table set up in front of the jury box, while their clerks and other staff sat in the jury box itself.
I got another courthouse-area parking meter ticket today for only 15 minutes short. Aargh!
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