Marvin Schechter chairs a section of the New York State Bar Association composed of both defense attorneys and prosecutors. Yet, to my knowledge, he made no effort to get both sides of the story before commenting about the case of People v. Waters, 571/2007, (“D.A.s Challenge Claim by Bar Section Head They Undermine ‘Brady’” July 30).
True, the decision was written by a judge. But both the decision and Schechter seem to ignore the fact that the material in question was inculpatory rather than exculpatory, which was fully explained in our motion to reargue the case, which the judge denied without detailed analysis. That’s right, the versions of the witness’ testimony which were more favorable to the defendant had been fully disclosed and were already in their possession for use as impeachment material.
