Five Years under State v. Thompson Criminal Pretrial Discovery in Washington

Authors

Kenneth L. Schubert, Jr.

Abstract

Shortly after its 1959 decision in State v. Thompson, the Washington Supreme Court was credited with having made substantial change in the availability of pretrial discovery in Washington criminal procedure. This comment seeks to determine the effect of State v. Thompson by surveying the law of pretrial discovery on two levels of the Washington judicial system. First, the comment analyzes the recent supreme court cases that followed State v. Thompson, emphasizing the policy reasons behind current Washington procedure. Then the comment discusses a survey of the state's trial judges, which was made in conjunction with this paper for the purpose of investigating the actual day-to-day workings of criminal pretrial discovery. The article is thus a case study of pretrial discovery as developed in Washington over the last five years.

First Page

853

Recommended Citation

Kenneth L. Schubert, Jr., Comment, Five Years under State v. Thompson Criminal Pretrial Discovery in Washington, 39 Wash. L. Rev. 853 (1964).
Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wlr/vol39/iss4/11