تسجيل الدخول

تسجيل

Discovery

المؤلف:  Max M. Houck، Jay A. Siegel

المصدر:  Fundamentals of Forensic Science

الجزء والصفحة:  p624-625

2026-09-08

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Discovery

Discovery is a process whereby one side in litigation seeks to gather information about testimony and evidence that is in the hands of the other side. Historically, the rule in the United States has been that the defendant in a criminal case is not entitled to inspection or disclosure of evidence that is in possession of the prosecution. The modern trend is to broaden discovery in criminal cases, both in favor of the defendant and the prosecution. This is known as reciprocal discovery. In practice, each party makes a discovery motion to the judge asking for particular items that they wish to inspect or get copies of. These can include witness lists and laboratory reports from forensic analysis.

In the Federal Code, Federal Rule of Evidence (FRE) Rule 16 governs pretrial discovery in the federal courts and many states have similar rules. Rule 16(F) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure states that: “(t)he government must permit a defendant to inspect and to copy or photograph the results or reports of any physical or mental examination and of any scientific test or experiment” subject to certain conditions. Rule 16(G) states that the government is obliged to “give to the defendant a written summary of any testimony that the government intends to use that could constitute expert testimony as defined by the Federal Rules of Evidence.” The Jencks Act permits the defense in a criminal case to obtain any written and oral statements made by a prosecution witness, but only after the witness has testified at trial. A reasonable recess is allowed for inspection of the written statement. It may then be used by the defense to challenge or even impeach a witness. Finally, the Supreme Court ruled, in Brady v. Maryland, that the government has a continuing burden in a criminal case, to turn over to the defense, any evidence that can reasonably be construed as favorable to the defense. The evidence must be disclosed at a time when it would be valuable to the defense. Exculpatory laboratory reports fall within the purview of the Brady doctrine. Failure to comply with this doctrine can result in a mistrial or even dismissal of the charges against the defendant.