Defendant submits that the prosecution has no legitimate interest in the alteration or suppression of documents and little or no interest in their destruction. The incidental and slight burden which might be imposed upon the Government agencies involved by requiring them to retain their records intact as they pertain to this case until such time as the Defendant has an opportunity to inspect them is manifestly outweighed by the Defendant's substantial interest in a fair trial and his right to due process of law. Indeed, Defendant submits that the Government has an obligation to preserve all potentially discoverable evidence gathered in the course of a criminal investigation. Government notes of interviews with persons who are or may be witnesses, or with other persons who may have provided exculpatory evidence or information, are a type of material evidence which the Government must maintain. These matters are, in either case, properly discoverable by the Defendant.
Defendant emphasizes that the request at present is merely to preserve.
The Defendant in Martin filed no motion to preserve evidence and then sought reversal of his conviction complaining that an FBI agent, acting in good faith following then routine practice, had destroyed his handwritten notes of a witness interview after using the notes to prepare the standard FBI interview reports.