John Council reports, "New Open-File Policy Includes Appellate Info," in the October 6 Texas Lawyer.
When Craig Watkins took over as Dallas County district attorney in January 2007, one of the first big administrative changes he made was instituting an open-file policy that allows criminal-defense attorneys to see a prosecutor’s file before trial. Now he has taken that policy one step further and the implications could be huge, several appellate experts say.
As of Sept. 22, Watkins changed his open-file policy to include all post-conviction matters, meaning criminal-defense lawyers can now examine any of the thousands of case files the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office has handled in the past. Watkins says the office still has decades-old case files in storage.
“The idea is we have an open-file policy at trial, so why would we have anything to hide during the writ process?” Watkins says.
While some appellate lawyers say prosecutors have allowed them to see post-conviction files on a case-by-case basis, Watkins’ policy appears to be a first-of-its-kind in Texas.
The policy change is just another effort to ensure that the wrong people aren’t in prison, says Watkins, whose office has worked to free numerous inmates — most of whom were convicted of rape charges — on the basis of DNA evidence. He formed a Conviction Integrity Unit within his office that examines innocence claims filed by prisoners. And last month, Watkins announced that his office would begin re-viewing the Dallas convictions of death-row inmates for possible errors.
Watkins says his efforts to ensure that people aren’t wrongfully imprisoned are paying dividends in the courtroom. He says a good example is a case his prosecutors tried recently in which a jury found a man guilty of capital murder in 30 minutes — a conviction that re-sulted in an automatic life sentence.
“I talked to the jury afterward. And they said, ‘Because of what you’re doing, we’re more apt to believe you. If you’re using your resources to make sure an innocent man isn’t being prosecuted, we believe you,’ ” Watkins says. “If you’re a prosecutor, that’s what you want. You want credibility. We have a lot more convictions than exonerations. And it’s really making Dallas County safer.”
And:
The Denton County District Attorney’s Office instituted an open-file policy in 2007 for cases that are pending in trial court. But the office has not considered changing that policy to include post-conviction appeals, says First Assistant DA Jamie Beck. Denton prosecutors will exchange discovery with defense lawyers during appeals on a case-by-case basis, Beck says. But instituting a broader open-file policy to in-clude all appellate matters gives her pause.
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