2012 Nebraska Revised Statutes
Chapter 29 - CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
29-1912 - Request by defendant to inspect and make copies of evidence; granted; when; findings; possibility of harm; effect.
(1) When a defendant is charged with a felony or when a defendant is charged with a misdemeanor or a violation of a city or village ordinance for which imprisonment is a possible penalty, he or she may request the court where the case is to be tried, at any time after the filing of the indictment, information, or complaint, to order the prosecuting attorney to permit the defendant to inspect and copy or photograph:
(a) The defendant's statement, if any. For purposes of this subdivision, statement means a written statement made by the defendant and signed or otherwise adopted or approved by him or her, or a stenographic, mechanical, electrical, or other recording, or a transcription thereof, which is a substantially verbatim recital of an oral statement made by the defendant to an agent of the prosecution, state, or political subdivision thereof, and recorded contemporaneously with the making of such oral statement;
(b) The defendant's prior criminal record, if any;
(c) The defendant's recorded testimony before a grand jury;
(d) The names and addresses of witnesses on whose evidence the charge is based;
(e) The results and reports of physical or mental examinations, and of scientific tests, or experiments made in connection with the particular case, or copies thereof;
(f) Documents, papers, books, accounts, letters, photographs, objects, or other tangible things of whatsoever kind or nature which could be used as evidence by the prosecuting authority;
(g) The known criminal history of a jailhouse witness;
(h) Any deal, promise, inducement, or benefit that the prosecuting attorney or any person acting on behalf of the prosecuting attorney has knowingly made or may make in the future to the jailhouse witness;
(i) The specific statements allegedly made by the defendant against whom the jailhouse witness will testify and the time, place, and manner of the defendant's disclosures;
(j) The case name and jurisdiction of any criminal cases known to the prosecuting attorney in which a jailhouse witness testified about statements made by another criminal defendant that were disclosed to the jailhouse witness while he or she was a jailhouse witness and whether the jailhouse witness received any deal, promise, inducement, or benefit in exchange for or subsequent to such testimony; and
(k) Any occasion known to the prosecuting attorney in which the jailhouse witness recanted testimony about statements made by another criminal defendant that were disclosed to the jailhouse witness while he or she was a jailhouse witness and, if any are known, a transcript or copy of such recantation.
(2) The court may issue such an order pursuant to the provisions of this section. In the exercise of its judicial discretion, the court shall consider among other things whether:
(a) The request is material to the preparation of the defense;
(b) The request is not made primarily for the purpose of harassing the prosecution or its witnesses;
(c) The request, if granted, would not unreasonably delay the trial of the offense and an earlier request by the defendant could not have reasonably been made;
(d) There is no substantial likelihood that the request, if granted, would preclude a just determination of the issues at the trial of the offense; or
(e) The request, if granted, would not result in the possibility of bodily harm to, or coercion of, witnesses.
(3) Whenever the court refuses to grant an order pursuant to the provisions of this section, it shall render its findings in writing together with the facts upon which the findings are based.
(4) Whenever the prosecuting attorney believes that the granting of an order under the provisions of this section will result in the possibility of bodily harm to witnesses or that witnesses will be coerced, the court may permit him or her to make such a showing in the form of a written statement to be inspected by the court alone. The statement shall be sealed and preserved in the records of the court to be made available to the appellate court in the event of an appeal by the defendant.
(5) For purposes of subdivisions (1)(g) through (k) of this section, jailhouse witness means a person in the physical custody of any jail or correctional institution as (a) an accused defendant, (b) a convicted defendant awaiting sentencing, or (c) a convicted defendant serving a sentence of incarceration, at the time the statements the jailhouse witness will testify about were disclosed.
- Laws 1969, c. 235, § 1, p. 867;
Laws 1983, LB 110, § 1;
Laws 2009, LB63, § 25;
Laws 2010, LB771, § 17.
2. Trial court
3. Miscellaneous
1. Scope
2. Trial court
3. Miscellaneous
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