Defendant\u27s Right of Discovery in Criminal Cases

Predicated upon concepts of equity, discovery is the procedure by which one litigant is enabled to force his opponent to make some or all of his evidence available for examination. When authorized prior to actual trial, such disclosure is termed pre-trial discovery. The purpose of a trial is to ascertain the facts. Proponents of liberal discovery assert that knowledge of the facts and, hence, discovery are necessary for fundamental justice. They contend that adoption of broad disclosure practices will eliminate the surprise and guesswork from the courtroom, and transform the aura of a trial from a sporting event to a quest for truth. In recent years, great strides toward broad discovery rights have been made in the area of civil procedur

Defendant\u27s Right of Discovery in Criminal Cases

Predicated upon concepts of equity, discovery is the procedure by which one litigant is enabled to force his opponent to make some or all of his evidence available for examination. When authorized prior to actual trial, such disclosure is termed pre-trial discovery. The purpose of a trial is to ascertain the facts. Proponents of liberal discovery assert that knowledge of the facts and, hence, discovery are necessary for fundamental justice. They contend that adoption of broad disclosure practices will eliminate the surprise and guesswork from the courtroom, and transform the aura of a trial from a sporting event to a quest for truth. In recent years, great strides toward broad discovery rights have been made in the area of civil procedur

Federal Injunctions and State Criminal Prosecutions: Vestiges of Our Federalism

Increasingly over the past decade, persons charged with violations of unconstitutional federal or state statutes have sought to obtain equitable relief in the federal courts. Most often, the relief sought has been in the form of an injunction restraining the government from prosecuting or threatening to prosecute under the allegedly invalid statute. Declaratory relief (that the statute is, in fact, unconstitutional) has often been sought as an additional or alternative remedy

Federal Injunctions and State Criminal Prosecutions: Vestiges of Our Federalism

Increasingly over the past decade, persons charged with violations of unconstitutional federal or state statutes have sought to obtain equitable relief in the federal courts. Most often, the relief sought has been in the form of an injunction restraining the government from prosecuting or threatening to prosecute under the allegedly invalid statute. Declaratory relief (that the statute is, in fact, unconstitutional) has often been sought as an additional or alternative remedy

Reliability of Measurements Performed by Community-Drawn Anthropometrists from Rural Ethiopia

Undernutrition is an important risk factor for childhood mortality, and remains a major problem facing many developing countries. Millennium Development Goal 1 calls for a reduction in underweight children, implemented through a variety of interventions. To adequately judge the impact of these interventions, it is important to know the reproducibility of the main indicators for undernutrition. In this study, we trained individuals from rural communities in Ethiopia in anthropometry techniques and measured intra- and inter-observer reliability.We trained 6 individuals without prior anthropometry experience to perform weight, height, and middle upper arm circumference (MUAC) measurements. Two anthropometry teams were dispatched to 18 communities in rural Ethiopia and measurements performed on all consenting pre-school children. Anthropometry teams performed a second independent measurement on a convenience sample of children in order to assess intra-anthropometrist reliability. Both teams measured the same children in 2 villages to assess inter-anthropometrist reliability. We calculated several metrics of measurement reproducibility, including the technical error of measurement (TEM) and relative TEM. In total, anthropometry teams performed measurements on 606 pre-school children, 84 of which had repeat measurements performed by the same team, and 89 of which had measurements performed by both teams. Intra-anthropometrist TEM (and relative TEM) were 0.35 cm (0.35%) for height, 0.05 kg (0.39%) for weight, and 0.18 cm (1.27%) for MUAC. Corresponding values for inter-anthropometrist reliability were 0.67 cm (0.75%) for height, 0.09 kg (0.79%) for weight, and 0.22 kg (1.53%) for MUAC. Inter-anthropometrist measurement error was greater for smaller children than for larger children.Measurements of height and weight were more reproducible than measurements of MUAC and measurements of larger children were more reliable than those for smaller children. Community-drawn anthropometrists can provide reliable measurements that could be used to assess the impact of interventions for childhood undernutrition

A Cluster-Randomized Trial to Assess the Efficacy of Targeting Trachoma Treatment to Children.

Background: The World Health Organization recommends annual treatment of entire trachoma-endemic communities, although children typically have a higher load, longer duration, and greater likelihood of infection. Methods: Forty-eight communities in Matameye, Niger, were randomized to annual oral azithromycin treatment of the entire community or biannual treatment of children aged 0-12 years only. Both children and adults were monitored for ocular chlamydial infection by polymerase chain reaction. Results: The prevalence of childhood infection was reduced in the annually treated arm from 21.2% (95% confidence interval [CI], 15.2%-28.0%) at baseline to 5.8% (95% CI, 3.2%-9.0%) at 36 months (P < .001) and in the biannual arm from 20.2% (95% CI, 15.5%-25.3%) to 3.8% (95% CI, 2.2%-6.0%; P < .001). Adult infection in the annual arm was reduced from 1.7% (95% CI, .9%-2.7%) to 0.3% (95% CI, .0%-.7%) and in the biannual arm from 1.2% (95% CI, .5%-2.2%) to 0.0% (95% CI, .0%-.7%; P = .005). The effect of biannual treatment of children compared with annual treatment of the entire community in both children (95% CI, -.04% to .02%) and adults (95% CI, .9%-2.7%) excluded the prespecified noninferiority threshold of 6% (P = .003 and P < .001, respectively). Conclusions: Periodic distribution of antibiotics to children in trachoma-endemic communities reduces chlamydial infection in both children and untreated adults, suggesting a form of herd protection. Biannual treatment of children was comparable to (specifically, noninferior to) annual treatment of the entire community, and may offer lower antibiotic use and other logistical advantages. Clinical Trials Registration: NCT00792922

Mass Azithromycin and Malaria Parasitemia in Niger: Results from a Community-Randomized Trial.

Studies designed to determine the effects of mass administration of azithromycin on trachoma have suggested that mass azithromycin distributions may also reduce the prevalence of malaria. These studies have typically examined the impact of a small number of treatments over short durations. In this prespecified substudy of a cluster-randomized trial for trachoma, we compared malaria parasitemia prevalence in 24 communities in Niger randomized to receive either annual or biannual mass azithromycin distributions over 3 years. The 12 communities randomized to annual azithromycin received three treatments during the high-transmission season, and the 12 communities randomized to biannual azithromycin received a total of six treatments: three during the high-transmission season and three during the low-transmission season. Blood samples were taken to assess malariometric indices among children in all study communities at a single time point during the high-transmission season after 3 years of the intervention. No significant differences were identified in malaria parasitemia, parasite density, or hemoglobin concentration between the annual and biannual treatment arms. When compared with annual mass azithromycin alone, additional mass azithromycin distributions given during the low-transmission season did not significantly reduce the subsequent prevalence of malaria parasitemia or parasite density after 3 years, as measured during the high-transmission season