Legal Question in Criminal Law in Minnesota

No one can prevent a lawyer from talkiing to a witness, other than the witness. It is a fundamental right of a lawyer for any party, including a prosecutor, to be able to talk to any witness who is willing. Interfering with that can be a crime in itself. A lawyer need not ask a witness to call a prosecutor. A lawyer intending to call a witness at trial is required by the rules of court, to disclose the witness name and adress, as well as any known criminal record. That's it. I have at time in the past, encouraged prosecutors to talk to my witnesses in the hope that this would help the prosecutor do the right thing and dismiss. But, there have been situations where that seemed quite unlikely, and so I would be in no hurry to help the prosecutor know what my witness will testify. It depends.