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State v. Diprete5/1/1998
hat its intention was to hopefully eliminate unfair surprise and procedural prejudice at trial. See also State v. Ramos, 553 A.2d 1059 (R.I. 1989). In Evans we also noted that Rule 16 was intended to ensure that every defendant through pretrial discovery would be able to adequately prepare for trial. 688 A.2d at 1259 (citing State v. Scurry, 636 A.2d 719, 725 (R.I. 1994)). In order to ensure that an accused who is by law presumed to be innocent was given every opportunity to prove that innocence, we have held that whenever a defendant requests pretrial discovery, the state's prosecutors are obligated to respond to that request in good faith, fully and candidly, and must disclose all known relevant information encompassed within the defendant's discovery request. See State v. LaChapelle, 638 A.2d 525, 530 (R.I. 1994); State v. Darcy, 442 A.2d 900, 902-03 (R.I. 1982). Any failure on the part of the state's prosecutors to respond candidly to their Rule 16 obligations serves to undermine the judicial process. Ramos, 553 A.2d at 1067. In particular, and pertinent to the prosecutorial misconduct in this case, we have consistently condemned untimely disclosure of requested pretrial discovery information, Scurry, 636 A.2d at 725, and have said that when defendants are misled into proceeding to trial unprepared, the basic concepts of due process are violated and " he courts cannot allow the integrity of the criminal system to be undermined by the over zealous prosecutor." In re Ouimette, 115 R.I. 169, 175, 342 A.2d 250, 253 (1975).
The majority questions the trial Justice's reference to Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), in assessing the substantial and irreparable pretrial prejudice that he found to have resulted to the defendants as a result of the prosecutors' flagrant disregard of their Rule 16 pretrial discovery obligations. The majority states that "the Brady principles have no relevance to pretrial discovery." I disagree with that restricted keyhole view of Brady. In United States v. Polisi, 416 F.2d 573 (2d Cir. 1969), that court aptly noted:
"The importance of Brady, then, is its holding that the concept out of which the constitutional dimension arises in these cases is prejudice to the defendant measured by the effect of the suppression upon defendant's preparation for trial, rather than its effect upon the jury's verdict." Id. at 577.
Several years later our First Circuit's opinion in United States v. Donatelli, 484 F.2d 505 (1st Cir. 1973), reflected that same Brady interpretation. It noted that,
" defendant in a criminal trial has the right to a fair trial, and as one aspect of this right he must be supplied by the prosecution all evidence which may be materially favorable to him, [citing Brady], including evidence which would have a material effect upon trial preparation." Id. at 507-08.
Indeed one need only refer to what Justice Shea said in State v. Coelho, supra, to challenge the majority's narrow keyhole interpretation of Brady in its application to Rule 16 pretrial discovery proceedings. In Coelho, writing for a unanimous court, he correctly noted that the true nature of the prejudice that Rule 16 sought to remedy was "to ferret out procedural, rather than substantive, prejudice." 454 A.2d at 245. He then added, "In determining whether this type of prejudice exists in a given case, the trial Justice must determine whether the discovery violation prevented the defendant from properly preparing for trial." Id. See also The Prosecutor's Constitutional Duty to Reveal Evidence to the Defendant, 74 Yale L.J. 136 (1964). I believe that the trial justice in this case properly referred to Brady in determining whether th
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