Opinion ID: 1060379
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Suppressed Brady Evidence

Text: The United States Supreme Court has held that suppression by the prosecution of evidence favorable to an accused upon request violates due process where the evidence is material either to guilt or punishment, irrespective of the good faith or bad faith of the prosecution. Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. at 87, 83 S.Ct. at 1196-97. [3] Evidence is favorable to an accused where it exculpates the accused, mitigates the punishment, or impeaches the prosecution's witnesses. See Johnson v. State, 38 S.W.3d at 55-56. Evidence is material when there is a reasonable probability that the result of the proceeding would have been different had the exculpatory evidence been disclosed. Id. at 58. The post-conviction petition and attached exhibits in this case alleged that the prosecution violated these due process principles by suppressing police records that included numerous statements made by Melvin Wallace. For instance: Wallace told Sgt. J.D. Welch that he did not notice Sample during the robbery; Wallace told Sgt. Welch that he had been shot by McKay; Wallace told Officer J.D. Douglas that he could identify McKay but not the second man involved in the offense; and Wallace gave physical descriptions that did not match either McKay or Sample. The petition alleged that these statements were exculpatory and material because they contradicted Wallace's critical eyewitness testimony at trial. In addition, the petition alleged that the prosecution suppressed the following exculpatory evidence: reports that Sample's fingerprints were not found at the scene of the offenses; reports that other potential suspects were near the scene at the time of the offenses; descriptions given to the dispatcher that matched neither Sample nor McKay; descriptions given to officers by witness Charles Rice that matched neither Sample nor McKay; inconsistent statements made by Rice regarding the offenses; and reports that drugs were commonly sold from the L & G grocery store. [4] The petitioner asserted that the claim was not raised within the three-year statute of limitations because he was unaware that the prosecution suppressed the exculpatory evidence until he had access to police investigative files pursuant to the decision in Capital Case Resource Center of Tennessee, Inc. v. Woodall, No. 01A01-9104-CH-00150, 1992 WL 12217, 1992 Tenn. Ct.App. LEXIS 94 (Jan. 29, 1992), which held that the Tennessee Public Records Act [5] applies to criminal cases under collateral review. Moreover, after remand, the petitioner asserted that he had requested exculpatory evidence both before trial and after the Woodall decision and that he did not obtain possession of the evidence until September of 1993. The trial court nonetheless determined that the claim was barred by the statute of limitations.