Legal Question in Criminal Law in Virginia

I am in Augusta County Virginia, and I need to know if the commonwealths attorney's office can withhold evidence of a complaining witnesses statement that was recorded on a DVD, they used it by giving it to the parole officer and he used it for the presentencing report, and that contradicts the testimony at trial. We tried to ask for a motion for a new trial based on the law Brady vs. Maryland and was denied. I would like to know if we can obtain that DVD or does Augusta Co. have a closed file policy? thanks for your help.


Asked on 3/17/11, 1:52 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

Brady v. Maryland refers to a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court that concerns a defendant's right to have exculpatory evidence

regarding such defendant's alleged guilt of a crime with which s/he has been charged and which is in the possession of the prosecutor to be turned over to him or her

Whatever the "evidence" of this complaining witness on this DVD consisted of

and which supposedly was used in the PSR, merely because it may have had inconsistencies with what the witness testified to at the trial, doesn't necessarily mean that it qualified as exculpatory evidence which may explain why the motion for a new trial was denied.

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Answered on 4/16/11, 5:25 pm


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