Ethical Duties of Prosecutors in White Collar Cases: The Enron/Skilling Example of the Value of Full Disclosure (or, Here’s the Story of a Rule Named Brady)

Posted by Alan Childress

On White Collar Crime Prof Blog, Ellen Podgor has recently posted on the social value (here) and on the ethics rule requirement (here) of full discovery disclosure by prosecutors — the Brady rule as legal ethics and as applied to white collar prosecutions beyond typical drug cases.  The issue arises from allegations in Jeff Skilling’s brief that the government did not turn over all of the Fastow notes (initial FBI interviews of Andy Fastow which painted a much more innocent picture than his trial testimony).  See also the WSJ article here, unfortunately just a preview.  And the Letter of Apology Blog finds the non-disclosure to be “striking” and “troubling,” here, with further links to blogging on the issue.

Update :  The Skilling Supplemental Brief is also linked in this commentary by Houston blogger-lawyer Tom Kirkendall.