State of Illinois
91st General Assembly
Legislation

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91_SR0288

 
                                               LRB9112988OBmg

 1                          SENATE RESOLUTION

 2        WHEREAS, The Supreme Court Rules applicable to  discovery
 3    in  criminal trials create a framework that lacks some of the
 4    discovery  tools  integral  to  civil  litigation,  such   as
 5    interrogatories and depositions; and

 6        WHEREAS,  With  the addition of the ability to depose the
 7    State's  expert  witnesses,  the  defendant's  counsel  could
 8    determine if the defense needed to expend valuable  resources
 9    by  hiring  its  own  expert  to assist in dealing with those
10    issues; and

11        WHEREAS, The ability to know the testimony of the State's
12    experts in advance would assist the court in shepherding  its
13    resources by allowing the defendant's counsel to know whether
14    an  expert  needed  to  be  appointed  for the defendant in a
15    particular case, and the depositions  of  victims  and  other
16    witnesses  would  allow an opportunity for their testimony to
17    be known before trial, which would assist in guilty pleas and
18    dismissal of cases before trial; therefore, be it

19        RESOLVED, BY  THE  SENATE  OF  THE  NINETY-FIRST  GENERAL
20    ASSEMBLY  OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we respectfully urge
21    the Illinois Supreme Court to adopt rules providing that  the
22    State  and  Defense  provide each other with the identity of,
23    and a complete set of reports  for,  all  experts  they  have
24    consulted,  together  with  a  list  of all victims and other
25    witnesses who have been interviewed, that the State  and  the
26    Defense  make  all  experts  they  have  employed  and  other
27    witnesses  they  have  interviewed available for interview by
28    the opposing party, and that trial  courts  be  permitted  to
29    order,  after  a  finding  of  reasonable grounds by a moving
30    party,  that  an  expert  or  other  witness  is  subject  to
31    deposition prior to trial; and be it further

32        RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be sent  to  the
 
                            -2-                LRB9112988OBmg
 1    Illinois Supreme Court.

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