Re: NOLAN’S LAW
Dear Members of the Advisory Commission on the Administration of Justice:
My name is Gerry Spence. I am an attorney who has spent a lifetime fighting for the rights of ordinary citizens. I am in support of Ms. Tonja Brown’s proposed recommendation of NOLAN’S LAW.
NOLAN’S LAW would be instrumental in protecting the rights of any of us who become accused of crimes. NOLAN'S LAW would provide that once a defendant is arrested and charged the law enforcement agency MUST provide the accused with a copy of all exculpatory evidence in the possession of the prosecution at the time of the arrest and that after the arrest copies of any additional exculpatory evidence that is provided the prosecution be simultaneously provided the accused.
We have witnessed in the last decade the release of countless innocent citizens whose precious lives were wasted in horrible prisons because an over zealous prosecutor chose not to turn over exculpatory evidence as is required by law.
The failure to turn over exculpatory evidence not only convicts innocent persons, but it is the reason that rapists and murderers are released to walk among us. Prosecutors withhold evidence which requires the court to reverse convictions and has resulted in the release of persons who should have remained behind bars.
When a prosecutor doesn’t do their job, we all lose. Either an innocent person loses his constitutional protection or a rapist or murderer walks free. Support NOLAN’S LAW and protect all of us, and our families from the strategies of ambitious prosecutors who want to convict at any price.
Respectfully,
Gerry Spence
Wikipedia says this about Gerry Spence:
"Gerry Spence
(b. January 8, 1929, Laramie, Wyoming) is a trial lawyer in
the United States. He has had more multi-million dollar
verdicts without an intervening loss than any other lawyer
in the US. In 2008, he announced he would retire, at
age 79, at the end of the Geoffrey Fieger trial in Detroit,
MI. Spence did not lose a criminal case with a trial by jury
in the over 50 years he practiced law."