Judge Weinfeld and the Adjudicatory Process: A Law Finder in an Age of Judicial Lawmakers

Abstract

In his 25 years on the bench, Edward Weinfeld has attained a nationwide reputation as an outstanding member of the federal judiciary. Judge Weinfeld's reputation is based, in part, upon his longstanding efforts to foster social justice and upon the new law that those efforts have produced. As the other tributes will show, the Judge's opinions have made much new law; very few other district judges have been as innovative. Judge Weinfeld has made his most important contributions in the law of criminal procedure. Since the 1950's he has consistently permitted criminal defendants to engage in broad pretrial discovery so that "[a] trial with possible serious consequences to the defendant and of importance to the public should not be treated 'as a game of combat by surprise.' " In the 1960's he authored two significant opinions prohibiting judicial participation in the pleabargaining process. There have also been many other cases in which the Judge has protected the procedural rights of criminal defendants. He has held, for example, that testimony procured by misleading statements on the part of the police cannot be admitted at trial and that a grant of immunity from federal prosecution bars any related state prosecution.