Consider this: In all the episodes of Perry Mason that you ever watched, Perry—the iconic cross-examiner—never, ever once gained one of his famous “You got me, I did it” case-ending admissions, by cross-examining from a prior witness statement given to him by (that constantly losing-prosecutor) Hamilton Burger. In fact, Perry seemed to never cross-examine at all from prior witness statements.
Why? Was it because the witness statements in Burger’s cases never revealed anything worthy of cross-examination? Not likely. Was it because all of those episodes were taped before the Congress adopted Title 18 U.S. Code, Section 3500 directing prosecutors to turn over so-called “3500 material.”1 Or before state courts, such as New York, adopted rules such as “Rosario,” requiring prosecutors to turn over so-called “Rosario material,” including prior statements of prosecution witnesses?2 Maybe.
