Court Opinion

ID: 9580983
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:10:50.298318+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:38.505775
License: Public Domain

ELLETT, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent.
This defendant does not seek to take a deposition for use at trial. If he did so, then the prevailing opinion would be correct. What he wishes to do is to make discovery before trial in order to be able to present his defense to the charge against him. Since the statutes do not provide for this procedure, there is no conflict between Rule 81(e) of the Rules of Civil Procedure and the statute.
The state has by statute1 allowed total discovery to the prosecuting attorney, and it would seem to be in the interest of justice to permit an innocent man 2 who is accused of crime also the privilege to make discovery and not wait until trial to find *1368out what evidence he will need to meet in order to prove his innocence.
The right afforded in civil cases has not led to abuses or increased the use of perjured testimony, and I do not think the application of the right to criminal cases would be different.
I would reverse the judgment rendered below.

. Title 77, Chapter 45, U.C.A.1953 as amended (1973 Pocket Supplement).

. All men are presumed to be innocent until proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.