Brady v. Maryland

Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case that established that the prosecution must turn over all evidence that might exonerate the defendant (exculpatory evidence) to the defense.[1]^:4 The prosecution failed to do so for Brady, and he was convicted. Brady challenged his conviction, arguing it had been contrary to the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Brady v. Maryland
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 18–19, 1963 Decided May 13, 1963
Full case name	John L. Brady v. State of Maryland
Citations	373 U.S. 83 (more) 83 S. Ct. 1194; 10 L. Ed. 2d 215; 1963 U.S. LEXIS 1615
Case history
Prior	Brady v. State, 226 Md. 422, 174 A.2d 167 (1961); cert. granted, 371 U.S. 812 (1962).
Holding
Withholding of evidence violates due process "where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment."
Court membership
Chief Justice Earl Warren Associate Justices Hugo Black · William O. Douglas Tom C. Clark · John M. Harlan II William J. Brennan Jr. · Potter Stewart Byron White · Arthur Goldberg
Case opinions
Majority	Douglas, joined by Warren, Clark, Brennan, Stewart, Goldberg
Concurrence	White
Dissent	Harlan, joined by Black
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. XIV

Background

On June 27, 1958, 25-year-old Maryland man John Leo Brady and 24-year-old companion Donald Boblit murdered 53-year-old acquaintance William Brooks. Both men were convicted and sentenced to death. Brady admitted to being involved in the murder, but he claimed that Boblit had done the actual killing and that they had stolen Brooks' car ahead of a planned bank robbery but had not planned to kill him.[2] The prosecution had withheld a written statement by Boblit (the men were tried separately), confessing that he had committed the act of killing by himself. The Maryland Court of Appeals had affirmed the conviction and remanded the case for a retrial only on the question of punishment. Brady's lawyer, E. Clinton Bamberger Jr., appealed the case to the Supreme Court, hoping for a new trial.[3]

Decision

The Supreme Court held that withholding exculpatory evidence violates due process "where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment." The court determined that under Maryland law, the withheld evidence could not have exculpated the defendant but was material to his level of punishment. Thus, the Maryland Court of Appeals' ruling was affirmed – Brady would receive a new sentencing hearing but not a new trial.[3]

William O. Douglas wrote: "We now hold that the suppression by the prosecution of evidence favorable to an accused upon request violates due process where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment... Society wins not only when the guilty are convicted, but when criminal trials are fair."[3]

A defendant's request for "Brady disclosure" refers to the holding of the Brady case, and the numerous state and federal cases that interpret its requirement that the prosecution disclose material exculpatory evidence to the defense. Exculpatory evidence is "material" if "there is a reasonable probability that his conviction or sentence would have been different had these materials been disclosed."[4] Brady evidence includes statements of witnesses or physical evidence that conflicts with the prosecution's witnesses[5] and evidence that could allow the defense to impeach the credibility of a prosecution witness.[6]

Aftermath

Brady was given a new hearing, where his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.[3] Brady was ultimately paroled. He moved to Florida, where he worked as a truck driver, started a family and did not re-offend.[3]

Police officers who have been dishonest are sometimes referred to as "Brady cops". Because of the Brady ruling, prosecutors are required to notify defendants and their attorneys whenever a law enforcement official involved in their case has a confirmed record of knowingly lying in an official capacity.[7]

Brady has become not only a matter of defendants' due process trial rights, but also of police officers’ due process employment rights. Officers and their unions have used litigation, legislation, and informal political pressure to push back on Brady's application to their personnel files. This conflict over Brady's application has split the prosecution team, pitting prosecutors against police officers, and police management against police labor.[8] Brady evidence also includes evidence material to credibility of a civilian witness, such as evidence of false statements by the witness or evidence that a witness was paid to act as an informant.[9]

In United States v. Bagley (1985), the Court narrowed the reach of Brady by stating the suppressed evidence had to be "exculpatory" and "material" for a violation to result in the reversal of a conviction.[2] Harry Blackmun wrote in Bagley that "only if there is a reasonable probability that, had the evidence been disclosed to the defense, the result of the proceeding would have been different. A 'reasonable probability' is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome."[2]

See also

• List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 373
• Brady material
• Connick v. Thompson
• Giglio v. United States
• Jencks Act
• Jencks v. United States
• Pitchess motion
• Testilying

References

1. Criminal Law: Cases and Materials, 7th ed., 2012, Wolters Kluwer Law & Business; John Kaplan, Robert Weisberg, Guyora Binder, ISBN 978-1-4548-0698-1
2. Andrew Cohen (May 13, 2013). "Prosecutors Shouldn't Be Hiding Evidence From Defendants". The Atlantic. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
3. Emily Langer (February 18, 2017). "E. Clinton Bamberger Jr., lawyer who won 'Brady rule' for criminal defendants, dies at 90". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
4. Strickler v. Greene, 527 U.S. 263, 296 (1999).
5. People v. Johnson, 38 Cal.App.3d 228, 113 Cal.Rptr. 303 (1974).
6. Banks v. Dretke, 540 U.S. 668 (2004).
7. Kamb, Lewis; Nalder, Eric (January 29, 2008). "Cops who lie don't always lose jobs". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved January 2, 2013.
8. "Brady's Blind Spot: Impeachment Evidence in Police Personnel Files and the Battle Splitting the Prosecution Team" (PDF). Stanford Law School. 2014-08-29. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
9. Banks, 540 U.S., at 694, 698.

Sources

• Clark, Garry (September 2005). "The Grand Jury: Phase: I — The Murder of Marsa Gipson". Archived from the original on 2011-02-02.
• Gershman, Bennett L. (January 1, 2006). "Reflections on Brady v. Maryland". South Texas Law Review. Pace University School of Law. 47: 685.
• Hochman, Robert (1996). "Brady v Maryland and the Search for Truth in Criminal Trials". The University of Chicago Law Review. The University of Chicago Law Review, Vol. 63, No. 4. 63 (4): 1673–1705. doi:10.2307/1600284. JSTOR 1600284.
• Hooper, Laural L.; Marsh, Jennifer E.; and Yeh, Brian. Treatment of Brady v. Maryland Material in United States District and State Courts’ Rules, Orders, and Policies: Report to the Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules of the Judicial Conference of the United States, Federal Judicial Center, October 2004.
• Levenson, Laurie L. "Discovery From the Trenches: The Future of Brady". UCLA Law Review Discovery. 60: 74. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
• Sundby, Scott E. (2002). "Fallen Superheroes and Constitutional Mirages: The Tale of Brady v. Maryland". McGeorge Law Review. 33. doi:10.2139/ssrn.361040.
• "Successful Brady/Napue Cases" (PDF). Habeas Assistance and Training 09/09. Capital Defense Network. September 27, 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 13, 2014. Retrieved January 2, 2013.

External links

• Text of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963) is available from:  CourtListener  Findlaw  Google Scholar  Justia  Library of Congress  Oyez (oral argument audio)