Virginia Federal Drug Defense Side Investigations

In order to build the strongest defense possible, a criminal defense lawyer will usually conduct an investigation of their own into the various people and facts involved in the case. In some instances, this investigation may require the use of an actual investigator to hit the field and ask people questions to compile evidence of their own.

What the investigatory lawyer will look for over the course of this federal drug investigation depends on the case, as an attorney will need to know what the charges are against the client and what evidence they have that is sufficient to prove those charges. Once they have that information, an attorney will know where to look to try to match the government’s evidence with evidence that contradicts that evidence.

Challenging Aspects of  Defense Investigations

Federal drug cases can involve massive amounts of discovery including lots of financial documents. For this reason, it is a challenge, because it presents a lot of man hours that are required to sort through documentation that the government might have been sitting on for months or years, and often attorneys have a limited amount of time in which to process that information.

The Government has a lot more time to investigate and they have infinite resources with which to do so. How it affects the defense attorney depends on that defense attorney and the type of infrastructure that the defense attorney has. If an attorney has a team of law clerks, paralegals, and investigators, absorbing all of the evidence that the government provides in discovery becomes a lot easier.

Federal Discovery Rules

The discovery rules in Federal Court are very different than they are in State Court. In Federal cases, the government is required to give the defense attorney just about everything they have against that attorney’s client. In many cases, this results in massive amounts of discovery.

Brady Information

Brady Information is information that is considered exculpatory in nature. Exculpatory evidence is evidence that tends to prove the defendant is not guilty of charges and the government is required to turn over any information that they have of that nature to the defense well in advance of trial.

The term Brady Information or Brady Evidence comes from the case of Brady vs. Maryland which is a Supreme Court case that held that the government must turn over any and all exculpatory evidence to the defense.

Issues for Defense Attorneys Trying to get Brady Information

Brady Information puts the decision of what is and is not potentially exculpatory evidence in the hands of the prosecutors or those who are trying to convict the defendant.

Essentially, the defense attorney has to rely upon the government to properly evaluate what is and is not potentially exculpatory evidence, and count on their ethics to turn over that information. Prosecutors do not always err on the side of caution. Many do, but many will hold on to information that is potentially exculpatory because they think it does not mean anything relevant.