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State v. Diprete5/1/1998
ood that the judgment of the jury could be affected. Id. at 272, 79 S.Ct. at 1179, 3 L.Ed.2d at 1223. A similar result was reached in Giles v. Maryland, 386 U.S. 66, 87 S.Ct. 793, 17 L.Ed.2d 737 (1967), wherein evidence of a prior inconsistent statement of a rape victim was undisclosed.
In United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 105 S.Ct. 3375, 87 L.Ed.2d 481 (1985), the Brady doctrine was extended to impeaching as well as exculpatory evidence that might be available to the accused. The Court held that failure to disclose such impeaching evidence when requested would constitute constitutional error only if it deprived the defendant of a fair trial. Id. at 676-78, 105 S.Ct. at 3380-81, 87 L.Ed.2d at 490-91. In that case the Court adopted a standard of materiality that would require a new trial only if the excluded evidence created "a reasonable probability that, had the evidence been disclosed to the defense, the result of the proceeding would have been different." Id. at 682, 105 S.Ct. at 3383, 87 L.Ed.2d at 494. A reasonable probability was defined as a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome. Id. The Court then remanded the case to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to determine whether the materiality test had been met with the clear indication that if that question was answered in the affirmative, the remedy would be a new trial. Id. at 684, 105 S.Ct. at 3385, 87 L.Ed.2d at 495.
Earlier in Weatherford v. Bursey, 429 U.S. 545, 559, 97 S. Ct. 837, 845-46, 51 L. Ed. 2d 30, 42 (1977), a civil action brought under 42 U.S.C. ยง 1983, the Court pointed out that the Brady doctrine did not create a constitutional right to discovery. In that case the concealment of an undercover agent's role as a potential witness, although he was a co-defendant (to protect his cover), did not constitute a denial of a fair trial. Id. at 560-61, 97 S.Ct. at 846, 51 L.Ed.2d at 42-43.
The most recent case under the Brady rubric was Kyles v. Whitley, 514 U.S. 419, 432-40, 115 S. Ct. 1555, 1565-69, 131 L.Ed. 2d 490, 505-10 (1995), wherein the Court held that the government had a duty to disclose exculpatory evidence even in the absence of a request, if the withheld evidence considered as a whole results in a reasonable probability that a different result would have obtained. The Court recognized that this obligation would exist regardless of the good faith or the bad faith of the prosecution and even if the police have failed to disclose the exculpatory evidence to the prosecuting attorney. Id. In that case there was a failure to disclose the fact that the defendant's car was not identified by a registration tag in the parking lot just after the incident. Moreover, the prosecution had introduced a photograph of the scene purporting to show the defendant's car. The government also withheld statements taken right after the incident that were entirely contrary to the testimony given at the trial. There was also a failure to disclose that the eyewitnesses who identified the defendant as the killer had given descriptions inconsistent with their testimony at trial; their earlier statements to police describing more closely another person who was connected with the crime. Id. at 441-51, 115 S.Ct. at 1569-74, 131 L.Ed.2d at 510-16. In that case, the Court held that the materiality test had been met and ordered as a remedy the reversal of the conviction and a remand for a new trial. Id. at 442, 115 S.Ct. at 1560, 131 L.Ed.2d at 498.
Numerous other cases might be cited expressing similar rationales in application of the Brady doctrine. See, e.g., United States v. Agurs, 427 U.S. 97, 112-14, 96 S.Ct. 2392, 2401-02, 49 L.Ed.2d 342, 354-56 (1976) (materiality standard enunciated but n
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