Legal Question in Criminal Law in Indiana

Disovery

I was convicted of a class C felony. A drug buy tape was given to me during discovery. The tape I received was inaudible. The prosecutor played a tape to the jury that had the background noise eliminated. This was not what we had been given during discovery and what we had at trial. The arresting officer testified she stored the tape at her house. The Prosecutor told the Judge our copy must have became damaged while in our possession. My sentencing date is Aug 10th is this a appeal able issue?


Asked on 7/11/07, 6:03 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
E. Brian Davis Davis Law Office

Re: Discovery

Was a motion filed seeking to exclude the tape from the trial due to inaudibility?

When did you first discover that the discovery copy of the tape was not audible and that the government had a tape that was audible? Have you had an expert review your copy of the tape to see why it was inaudible and the government's copy to see if it had been altered/tampered with?

I know these are questions rather than answers, but you need answers to some preliminary questions before you can know how to proceed.

Also, without the tape, how much evidence did the government have against you? If the evidence was overwhelming, an appellate court may well say that the error was harmless.

Then again, if you had known of the quality of the government's copy of the tape, you may have accepted a plea offer that is better than what your sentence may be after trial.

There are a lot of potential issues here, but more work and fact finding needs to be done. Good luck!

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Answered on 7/12/07, 11:29 pm


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