Guide
Running a Giglio program with software guardrails
Updated 2026-09-18 · 3 min read
A Giglio program keeps track of potential impeachment information about law-enforcement witnesses and makes sure the attorney on each affected matter knows about it. Software can help with recall: a restricted list, a second person approving every entry, and a flag on every open matter where that officer is a witness. The attorney still decides what, if anything, must be disclosed.
The policy framework
Giglio v. United States (1972) treats impeachment information about government witnesses as part of the prosecution's Brady obligations, and Kyles v. Whitley (1995) places on the prosecutor a duty to learn of favorable evidence known to others acting on the government's behalf. For federal offices, the Department of Justice Justice Manual at 9-5.100 sets out the policy for obtaining and handling potential impeachment information about law-enforcement agency witnesses, including a process for prosecuting offices and investigative agencies to request and provide it. State and local offices usually operate under their own written Brady or Giglio list policy. Whatever the source, the software should record decisions made under a written policy. It should not stand in for one.
The failure is usually recall
An office learns about a sustained finding against an officer. The information sits in an email or a supervisor's binder. Months later, a different attorney calls the same officer as a witness and nobody connects the two. The office knew; the attorney who needed to know did not. That is a problem software can help with, because it is a matching and routing problem, not a judgment call.
Guardrails that matter
Two-person review: one person enters the information, a different person approves it before it has any effect, and retiring an entry also takes someone other than the people who entered and approved it. Need-to-know access: only designated attorneys and reviewers in the prosecuting office can see the list. Not investigators, not analysts, not partner agencies, and never the officer's own agency, even when it is working the same matter. Minimal notifications: alerts tell the assigned attorney that a matter needs a Giglio review, without naming the officer or quoting the entry. Audit on every view and change. No deletion: rejected and retired entries stay on the record, because the history of what the office knew and when is itself important.
The system flags, the attorney decides
When an entry is approved, every open matter where that officer is a listed witness should be flagged for review by the assigned attorney. Possible matches that depend on a name or badge number should be confirmed by a person, not linked automatically. The attorney then records a review: what they concluded and a note. The software should never mark anything disclosed, never draft a disclosure letter on its own, never call something ‘Brady material’, and never tell anyone a matter is compliant. Materiality and disclosure are the attorney's judgment under the office's policy and the law.
How Prosequi handles it
Giglio Watch is off by default. An office administrator turns it on by entering a policy reference (prefilled with DOJ Justice Manual 9-5.100), the office's own policy id, and an acknowledgement that the office has adopted a written policy. Entries need a second approver. Approved entries flag matching matters on the matter's Giglio tab and in the Disclosure Gap Radar, for authorized viewers only. The attorney records a review; Giglio Watch never discloses anything. It uses no AI, and it is never visible to partner agencies. See the help center for the steps and the Brady tracker guide for how disclosure decisions are recorded once the attorney makes them.
Before you turn it on
Agree who approves entries, who can retire them, and what categories of information the office records. Decide how information arrives from agencies and who is told. Write it down. A software list without a written policy creates a record of information with no agreed process for acting on it.
Not legal advice
This guide describes a program structure and how Prosequi supports it. It is not legal advice. The Justice Manual, controlling case law, state law where it applies, and your office's written policy govern.