SEATTLE (AP) — The murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer has sparked a national conversation on police reform, ranging from defunding departments to enhancing training. But reform activists and civil rights advocates say prosecutors already have powerful tools at their disposal to curb bad behavior by police – using Brady Lists, which stem from a 1963 Supreme Court ruling mandating prosecutors turn over exculpatory evidence to defense attorneys, to shine a light on officers whose names are shrouded in secrecy by their departments and refusing to put forward cases from officers with tarnished histories. But the ruling did not define the steps prosecutors and police departments must take to ensure defendants are informed.
Tool for police reform rarely used by local prosecutors
