Q: Why would co defendant be in a discovery but there is no co defendant in the case ?
I am following the Bryan Kohbergers case and a lot of people are curious as to why a co defendant was listed in the discovery but there there is no co defendant ?
I’ve heard it is just how they do the legal discovery could you explain why they list this when there is actually no co defendant ?
A: My experience in dealing with prosecution offices is that the first Discovery Responses they send out are akin to a sawed off shotgun approach, they're going to list every, single human being who they talked to or originally thought they might want to talk to. It's kind of like a "place keeper." A place keeper keeps them from forgetting anyone as trial gets closer. Can you imagine being a prosecutor who only lists the individuals with whom they are focusing, and then in trial they (thinking they had already disclosed the name) call the name of someone else, and the defense stands up and says, "I object your Honor, the Government did not list that person's name in their discovery response and I object to them being able to call them!" The Court would sustain your objection and forbid the State from calling that person. The PA would lose their job because they forgot to "list everybody" as they were taught by their office when they started.
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