This one’s for Joe.

Judges approve open discovery

That Plain Dealer headline on Thursday gave me chills. I’m sure Joe felt them, too.

Joe D’Ambrosio kept me fighting, kept me writing column after column about open discovery.

Every time open discovery took a stumble or a step forward, I’d hear from Father Neil Kookoothe, Joe’s spiritual adviser.

“I talked to Joe today. He appreciates everything you’re doing for open discovery,” the priest would remind me. “Keep at it.”

Joe just got moved to the Cuyahoga County Jail, where he is waiting for a new trial after 20 years on death row. A judge ruled that prosecutors in Cuyahoga County withheld 10 key pieces of evidence that would most likely have led to a not guilty verdict.

Scott Shaw/The Plain Dealer Attorneys, from left, Michael Brittain, Ian Friedman and Stuart Friedman, toast the Cuyahoga County judges decision to require open discovery. The three were instrumental in getting the victory.

What does open discovery mean?

It means no more hiding evidence from defense attorneys.

No more leaving it up to prosecutors to decide what information a defense attorney needs to prepare for trial.

No more allowing prosecutors to read aloud police reports in court to defense attorneys who need to see all the facts for themselves.

No more making a mockery of your Constitutional rights to effective counsel and due process.

Ian Friedman, president of the Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, was ecstatic after the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas judges voted for open discovery in their courtrooms. “I am 30,000 feet high,” he said. “Thank you, Regina. You are the 400-pound linebacker. You carried this line.”

Actually, it took a whole team.

It took the Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers with Ian at the helm.

It took the public defenders and the Cuyahoga County Criminal Defense Lawyers.

It took the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas judges, with Judge Stuart Friedman leading the charge.

It took the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, the Norman S. Minor Bar Association and the Ohio Institute of Justice, with a special assist from attorney Michael Brittain.

It took the support of Lake County Prosecutor Charles Coulson, who stuck his neck out and said every prosecutor is a minister of justice, and that justice is best served by open discovery.

But mostly, it took you.

This is your victory. Your signature is all over this.

All 10,000 of them.

Before the final vote on open discovery this week, each judge received a 150-page binder of material, including the petitions I asked you to sign. So many of you participated, they had to present the signatures on two compact discs.

I’ll never forget the woman who e-mailed me and said her petition might be dirty. She was collecting signatures from her family of truck drivers.

Thank you, all of you.

Let’s savor this victory for a while. Then let’s win a bigger one.

Nearly half of Ohio’s 88 counties do not have open discovery in felony cases where people’s lives and liberty are at stake.

We got open discovery in Ohio’s largest county. It’s time to get it across the entire state.

Justice shouldn’t depend upon geography.