St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce calls it a road map that violent criminals can follow directly to victims and witnesses. Public defenders call it the law.
The dispute centers on personal information linked to crime victims and witnesses, and whether prosecutors must share that information — like social security numbers and addresses — with defense attorneys. In court earlier this month, Joyce's chief trial assistant admitted that the office routinely erases such information from police reports before providing them to defense counsel.
But the St. Louis public defender's office says the policy violates a 1979 Missouri Supreme Court rule that obligates the disclosure, and the ongoing legal battle is now clogging a St. Louis Circuit Court with hearings on some 150 criminal cases.…