The New Criminal Discovery Code in Oklahoma: A Two-Way Street in the Wrong Direction

Abstract

This article first examines criminal discovery in Oklahoma prior to the Allen decision. Next, section II of the article explores Allen and the court’s justifications for creating a reciprocal discovery system. The article reviews the Allen procedures and similar pre-trial discovery provisions contained in the American Bar Association’s Standards for Criminal Justice and questions whether Allen’s new discovery system will achieve the desired results. Section II also focuses on the constitutionality of the defendant’s disclosure obligations and the adverse effects of mandating such disclosures on the adversary system. Finally, section III of the article proposes an alternative discovery code based largely on the ABA Standards and argues that the Oklahoma legislature should adopt such a code because it appropriately balances the defendant’s constitutional rights with the state’s interest in a fair, efficient system of pre-trial discovery