The federal judiciary appears evenly split and prosecutors and defense lawyers sharply divided over a proposal to broaden criminal discovery obligations following a high-profile case of alleged government misconduct, according to a national survey.
The botched prosecution of the late Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens in 2009 — amid allegations that prosecutors concealed favorable information from the defense — led some in the judiciary to call on a Judicial Conference criminal rules committee to reconsider expanding prosecutors’ discovery obligations.
