Source: Professional Responsibility Blog: NYC Bar Ethics Committee issues opinion holding that prosecutors’ duty to disclose is broader than the duty imposed by Brady v Maryland

by Professor Alberto Bernabe – The John Marshall Law School

As you probably know, there are differences of opinion as to whether the duty to disclose information imposed on prosecutors by ABA Model Rule 3.8 is broader than the duty imposed by the constitutional standards in Brady v. Maryland. The ABA Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility held that it does in Formal Opinion 09-454, but a few jurisdictions have held otherwise. I have written about this in the past here. (And for all my posts on prosecutors’ duty to disclose evidence go here.)

Courts or Ethics Committees have also decided the duty under rules of professional conduct is broader in Utah, Texas, North Dakota, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia have reached the same conclusion. Courts or Committees have decided otherwise in Ohio, Oklahoma, Colorado, Louisiana and Wisconsin.

Now comes news that the New York City bar’s ethics committee has issued an opinion holding that a prosecutor’s ethical obligation to disclose exculpatory evidence is broader than the constitutional minimums imposed by Brady v. Maryland. See N.Y.C. Bar Ass’n Comm. on Prof’l Ethics, Op. 2016-3, 7/22/15….

Source: Professional Responsibility Blog: Can an attorney disclose very old confidential information because of its historical value?

Interesting post by Prof. Alberto Bernabe. FWIW if there is no identifiable living person who would be harmed by the disclosure, I think that the old file can be donated to a library.  A much harder case is that of, for example, about the files of the lawyers  `cold war’ spies like Alger Hiss or the Rosenbergs for whom there are living heirs – who have explored, explained, and assessed their conduct . – gwc

Source: When the Money Runs out for Public Defense, What Happens Next? | The Marshall Project

When the Money Runs out for Public Defense, What Happens Next? | The Marshall Project
by Oliver Laughland

Would a woman in Lexington, Ky., who faces fraud charges, still be in jail if her lawyer had the time to appeal a $40,000 bail bond?

Will a 50-year-old illiterate man in Cole County, Mo., charged in August with vehicular assault and facing over a decade in prison, be assigned an attorney with the resources to defend him?
Justice For Some

Part one of a three-part series about the underfunded public defenders of Louisiana.

Source: In Honduras, a Spiritual and Political Awakening for Tim Kaine – The New York Times

In September 1980, as violence and civil war erupted throughout Central America, a quiet American left Harvard Law School to volunteer with Jesuit missionaries in northern Honduras.
Around him, the United States-backed military dictatorship hunted Marxists and cracked down on the Catholic clergy for preaching empowerment to peasant farmers. But some locals also looked warily on the bearded and mop-haired Midwesterner in their midst.
Just a few hours south, the Central Intelligence Agency was using Honduras as a staging ground in its covert war against Latin American communism, with right-wing forces training for operations in El Salvador and Nicaragua.
“Some of the people were wondering what’s going on, who is this guy?”Tim Kaine, then a 22-year-old volunteer and now the Democratic nominee for vice president, said in an interview. He understood why. His mentors in the priesthood had also urged him to be wary of friendly American faces.