Aug 6, 2026 · 1 hr 29 min · 14 segments
The *Brady* Rule affirms that the government, because of its obligation to provide defendants with a fair trial, must turn over favorable, exculpatory evidence to a criminal defendant. Over the years…
Rick PoulsonHost
And so Brady and Giglio, uh, are the names of two different Supreme Court cases, and really Brady, uh, is the main, uh, court case, and it generally stands for the proposition that the government, uh, has an obligation, um, uh, to pro- in, in...
Consistent with its obligation to provide defendants with a fair, um, fair trial, uh, that the government has an obligation to turn over information, um, that would be helpful, uh, to a criminal defendant, uh, in a case.
But that comes out of a Brady decision from the 1960s, and, like, every 10 years or so, the Supreme Court gives us a decision that fleshes that out, and that's what the court does.
These days, the court seems to, like, just change their mind a lot and change the rules.
But, um, Brady-Giglio, uh, jurisprudence has been pretty consistent over the decades, where about every decade, you know, the, the court will help kind of, uh, focus the rule a little bit.
Uh, and so we're talking about criminal law cases, and so why are we even talking about that? I'm not a criminal lawyer.
Um, and when you work with law enforcement officers and, and police unions in particular, uh, or if you represent, uh, police departments, um, you're gonna have to deal with Brady-Giglio to a certain extent, and usually that's gonna be in the discipline context, and sometimes it can be in the deployment context, um, and sometimes if we're bargaining rules around how to deal with these things, which I think we're gonna talk about today.
Um, so there are implications outside of the criminal courtroom, which is why we're talking about this stuff, uh, on this podcast, and we talk about this at our seminars.
Um, w- we usually spend an hour or two talking about what's new in Brady and Giglio.
This is a, a criminal law doctrine And, you know, I mean, for many years, they really were the concern of prosecutors and criminal defense attorneys, you know, and judges, right? And so officers are going to hear about or would hear about Brady, you know, issues if they're called as a witness in a criminal case.
And, you know, for a lot of reasons, I would say that probably the biggest reason is the rise of and subsequent fall of progressive prosecutors, what we call progressive prosecutors, in mostly larger cities across the country.
And these, this is the, you know, whether it's Soros-funded or who the hell knows, right? But you've got, what I think happened is, you know, we saw about 20, 30, 20 years ago, state attorney generals, which historically had been viewed as really, you know, what's your top prosecutor in state, your AG.
State attorney general or state attorneys general became more active in areas outside of criminal law and so be being active in civil matters and, you know, taking a role on issues that may have more day-to-day importance to people.
And so I don't really care too much about what my state attorney general does unless, wait a minute, you know, he or she is talking about consumer rights that I might have or other things that might affect my day-to-day.
And so, and usually those are statewide elective offices that people use to springboard to governor or president or whatever it is that they might have in mind.
And so Brady and Giglio, uh, are the names of two different Supreme Court cases, and really Brady, uh, is the main, uh, court case, and it generally stands for the proposition that the government, uh, has an obligation, um, uh, to pro- in, in...
Consistent with its obligation to provide defendants with a fair, um, fair trial, uh, that the government has an obligation to turn over information, um, that would be helpful, uh, to a criminal defendant, uh, in a case.
But that comes out of a Brady decision from the 1960s, and, like, every 10 years or so, the Supreme Court gives us a decision that fleshes that out, and that's what the court does.
These days, the court seems to, like, just change their mind a lot and change the rules.
But, um, Brady-Giglio, uh, jurisprudence has been pretty consistent over the decades, where about every decade, you know, the, the court will help kind of, uh, focus the rule a little bit.
Uh, and so we're talking about criminal law cases, and so why are we even talking about that? I'm not a criminal lawyer.
Um, and when you work with law enforcement officers and, and police unions in particular, uh, or if you represent, uh, police departments, um, you're gonna have to deal with Brady-Giglio to a certain extent, and usually that's gonna be in the discipline context, and sometimes it can be in the deployment context, um, and sometimes if we're bargaining rules around how to deal with these things, which I think we're gonna talk about today.
Um, so there are implications outside of the criminal courtroom, which is why we're talking about this stuff, uh, on this podcast, and we talk about this at our seminars.
Um, w- we usually spend an hour or two talking about what's new in Brady and Giglio.
This is a, a criminal law doctrine And, you know, I mean, for many years, they really were the concern of prosecutors and criminal defense attorneys, you know, and judges, right? And so officers are going to hear about or would hear about Brady, you know, issues if they're called as a witness in a criminal case.
And, you know, for a lot of reasons, I would say that probably the biggest reason is the rise of and subsequent fall of progressive prosecutors, what we call progressive prosecutors, in mostly larger cities across the country.
And these, this is the, you know, whether it's Soros-funded or who the hell knows, right? But you've got, what I think happened is, you know, we saw about 20, 30, 20 years ago, state attorney generals, which historically had been viewed as really, you know, what's your top prosecutor in state, your AG.
State attorney general or state attorneys general became more active in areas outside of criminal law and so be being active in civil matters and, you know, taking a role on issues that may have more day-to-day importance to people.
And so I don't really care too much about what my state attorney general does unless, wait a minute, you know, he or she is talking about consumer rights that I might have or other things that might affect my day-to-day.
And so, and usually those are statewide elective offices that people use to springboard to governor or president or whatever it is that they might have in mind.
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