Opinion ID: 2541392
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The State suppressed the evidence

Text: The State suppressed the fact that prison guards confiscated a sharpened screwdriver from inmate Smith just minutes after Bausley was stabbed. A prison guard reported that a sharpened screwdriver was confiscated from inmate Smith, Smith was placed in administrative segregation for possessing the sharpened screwdriver, and the State successfully prosecuted Smith for possessing the screwdriver. The State was obviously aware of the evidence yet did not disclose it to Griffin. Even if the prosecutor was subjectively unaware that a weapon was confiscated from Smith, the State is nonetheless under a duty to disclose the evidence because the prosecutor is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all; and whose interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done.' Strickler, 527 U.S. at 281, 119 S.Ct. 1936 (quoting Berger v. United States, 295 U.S. 78, 88, 55 S.Ct. 629, 79 L.Ed. 1314 (1935)). In this case, the murder occurred in prison, and the prison guards were acting on the government's behalf. Therefore, the State had a duty to discover and disclose any material evidence known to the prison guards. See Engel, 304 S.W.3d at 127 (even if the prosecutor is unaware of evidence uncovered by investigators, the State is under a duty to disclose that evidence because the investigators are part of the prosecution team).