Prosecution to Produce Missing Discovery Items Days Before Trial

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During a trial readiness hearing Jan. 23, defense attorneys said they were not given all the evidence from the prosecution, making them unable to be prepared for trial.

Keith Archie, 40, allegedly stabbed 32-year-old Demond Marcel Rush on the 3600 block of 22nd Street, SE in July of 2017. Archie had previously rejected a second-degree murder while armed plea deal.

Archie’s attorneys, Sylvia Smith and Jason Tulley, said that the prosecutors were not cooperating in regards to filing items into the court.

“It took six weeks for them to respond to my emails,” said Tulley.

The defense attorneys said they are missing emails, phone data with time stamps, and unredacted police reports from the prosecution. In addition to not hearing back from the prosecution, the defense said they had not been given notice of any filing of evidence. Smith and Tulley asked DC Superior Court Judge Neal Kravitz to issue an instruction to the jury, so that they are aware of the extenuating circumstances.

The prosecution argued that the instruction would be highly prejudicial to their case and that a dismissal of the case would be less prejudicial.

“Discovery needs to be complete, not substantially complete,” Judge Kravitz said.

Tulley said the cases are much different now than they were 20 or 30 years ago. Looking through videos, bodycam footage and files are more time consuming now than they used to be, he told the judge.

“I think an instruction would infer that the prosecution was hiding information because their case was weak,” said Judge Kravitz.

The prosecution agreed to work with the defense in making sure everything was turned over before next week’s trial.

Jury selection for Archie’s trial is scheduled on Jan. 27

Opening statements are slated for Jan. 28.

This article was written by Jailynn Caraballo, MiriYam Judd, and Lea Gianasso.