Last month, a Vermont trial judge dismissed a Windsor County criminal case, citing a prosecutor’s failure to disclose potentially exculpatory information.
Prosecutors have a legal and ethical obligation to share with the defense information prosecutors have that goes to the credibility of a witness. A breach of this obligation can impair the ability of an accused person to mount an adequate defense.
A failure to disclose exculpatory information can emanate from two very different places: 1) a desire to consciously withhold evidence; and 2) a mistake. In either situation, the accused person is potentially prejudiced, but the assessment of the prosecutor’s conduct should differ substantially according to how and why there was a failure to disclose.
News reporting on the dismissed case intimated that a former deputy state’s attorney, Heidi Remick, intentionally withheld evidence. Not only is that factually inaccurate but it reflects a deep lack of awareness about her extraordinary contributions to the people of Vermont and the pursuit of justice when she worked in this state.
Attorney Remick is ethical, fair, committed to justice, and would never deliberately conceal evidence. Perhaps there was an oversight, but to question her substantial contributions to Vermont is, itself, a miscarriage of justice.
Robert Sand
Woodstock
Former Windsor County state’s attorney