Opinion ID: 151778
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Brady Violation Claim

Text: The main issue in this appeal is whether the officers violated their duty under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), to turn over all exculpatory evidence and thereby violated Mosley's due process rights. Mosley claims Williams told the officers that he recognized Mosley from the group of individuals who beat Thomas to death but that Williams saw that Mosley did not participate in the beating. Mosley insinuates that there was an original line-up report created that contained that statement and the officers destroyed the report to keep it from Mosley's attorney. In the alternative, Mosley claims that the officers did not create the line-up report for fifteen months to hide the fact that Williams saw that Mosley did not participate in the beating. Additionally, Mosley claims that the officers committed a Brady violation by not informing Mosley's attorney that Reed was too drunk to have any independent recollection of the night. We begin our analysis by determining what Mosley would need to show to prevail on a Brady due process violation claim. A Brady violation occurs when the government fails to disclose evidence materially favorable to the accused. Youngblood v. West Virginia, 547 U.S. 867, 869, 126 S.Ct. 2188, 165 L.Ed.2d 269 (2006). The Brady duty extends to impeachment evidence as well as exculpatory evidence. Id. at 870, 126 S.Ct. 2188. A defendant may demonstrate that a Brady violation has occurred by showing that the favorable evidence could reasonably be taken to put the whole case in such a different light as to undermine confidence in the verdict. Kyles v. Whitley, 514 U.S. 419, 435, 115 S.Ct. 1555, 131 L.Ed.2d 490 (1995). In granting summary judgment, the district court identified the logical tension inherent in claiming a Brady violation occurred when the predicate trial resulted in an acquittalexculpatory evidence coming to light after the trial would reaffirm, not undermine, the confidence in a not guilty verdict. Several of our sister circuits have held that the standard set out in Kyles indicates that a trial that results in an acquittal can never lead to a valid claim for a Brady violation because the trial produced a fair result, even without the exculpatory evidence. See Morgan v. Gertz, 166 F.3d 1307, 1310 (10th Cir.1999) (Regardless of any misconduct by government agents before or during trial, a defendant who is acquitted cannot be said to have been deprived of the right to a fair trial.); Flores v. Satz, 137 F.3d 1275, 1278 (11th Cir.1998) (finding no Brady violation in the face of an acquittal because Brady protects a defendant from an unfair trial and an acquitted defendant does not suffer the effects of an unfair trial); McCune v. City of Grand Rapids, 842 F.2d 903, 907 (6th Cir.1988) (holding that where criminal charges are dropped before trial, and thus the underlying criminal proceeding terminated in an appellant's favor, there is no injury caused by the act of suppressing exculpatory evidence). But see Haupt v. Dillard, 17 F.3d 285, 287-88 (9th Cir. 1994) (holding that where the trial judge was biased, defendant's acquittal speaks only to the amount of damages due and is irrelevant to whether he has a cause of action for a violation of his due process right to a fair trial). Our circuit has not directly resolved whether a plaintiff can assert a claim for a Brady violation when the trial resulted in an acquittal. We were recently confronted with this issue in Bielanski v. County of Kane, 550 F.3d 632, 644 (7th Cir.2008). However, we did not directly address the question because we found that even if we recognized a cause of action for a Brady violation when the trial results in an acquittal, the plaintiff in Bielanski would still have failed to state a claim. In coming to that conclusion, we set aside the issue of whether such a claim could potentially exist. We held that to state a Brady violation claim when the criminal trial ended in acquittal, if such a claim exists, the plaintiff would need to show that the decision to go to trial would have been altered by the desired disclosure. Bielanski, 550 F.3d at 645 (citing Carvajal v. Dominguez, 542 F.3d 561, 570 (7th Cir.2008)). Following Bielanski, we now ask whether there is any evidence in the record that would show: (1) that the officers withheld materially favorable evidence from Mosley, and (2) had the officers disclosed that evidence sooner, it would have altered the decision to go to trial. In other words, Mosley must show that if all parties had known of some piece of exculpatory evidence, the prosecution would not have moved forward with charges, the grand jury would not have indicted Mosley, or the trial court would have granted a motion to dismiss the indictment. Because Mosley cannot meet this bar, we reserve the question of whether our circuit recognizes a claim for a Brady violation when the trial results in an acquittal for a later case when this standard is met. There is no evidence in the record that the officers withheld any materially favorable piece of evidence. Mosley contends that during the lineup identification of him, Williams told the officers that he saw Mosley during the attack and he saw that Mosley did not participate in the beating; that the officers withheld that information; and that this withholding amounts to a Brady violation. Mosley does not contend that the officers withheld Williams's initial statement to the police or his grand jury testimony that he saw Mosley in the area of incident but did not see Mosley participate in the attack. Mosley stresses the distinction between not seeing someone participate in a crime and seeing someone not participate in the crime. Even if this distinction is meaningful, Mosley's claim fails because there is no evidence that Williams told the officers that he saw Mosley not participate in the beating that led to Thomas's death. To support his claim, Mosley points our attention to the cross-examination at trial where Williams replied yes to the defense counsel's statement: [Mosley is] the person you identified as having been out there but not having done anything, correct? We agree with the district court that Williams's one word answer to that leading question must be interpreted in light of all of Williams's testimony. This is not an impermissible credibility determination. It is a necessary interpretive step to give any meaning to that piece of testimony. In every situation where Williams articulated what he told the police officershis grand jury testimony, his direct examination testimony at trial, and his deposition testimony in this caseWilliams consistently said that he told the officers that he saw Mosley with the group that committed the attack but did not see or could not remember seeing Mosley participate. In light of the fact that he has consistently testified, both before and after the trial, that he told the officers that Mosley was in the area of the attack but that he did not know or did not see if Mosley participated, the one word answer on cross-examination cannot create a genuine issue of material fact on this issue. Mosley also points to the fifteen-month delay in the creation of a lineup report as evidence that the officers were intentionally withholding information. While fifteen months is an unusually long delay for the creation of a report, there is no evidence that the delay was the result of anything other than an oversight. Even if we were to determine that Williams's agreement on cross-examination creates an issue of material fact as to whether or not Williams ever told the officers that he saw Mosley not participate in the beating, this withholding would not rise to the level of a Brady violation under the standard we set forth in Bielanski because it would not have altered the prosecution's decision to go to trial. The prosecutor testified at his deposition that he moved forward against Mosley on an accountability theory of murder. To purse the accountability theory of murder, the state did not need to show that Mosley actively participated in the beating. Instead, the state needed to show that Mosley, with the intent to promote or facilitate the attack, solicited, aided, abetted, agreed or attempted to aid, others in the attack. 21 Tracy Bateman & Susan L. Thomas, Ill. Law and Prac. Homicide § 9 (2010). Williams's alleged statement would not have changed the viability of this theory of criminal liability for Mosley. Taking Mosley's most favorable formulation of Williams's testimony, Williams saw Mosley with the group who carried out the attack and saw Mosley in the area of the attack. Wideman stated that Mosley participated in earlier discussions planning to attack, beat, and rob an individual. After the attack, Mosley left with the group of perpetrators. This evidence would have been sufficient for the prosecutor to pursue the accountability theory of murder under Illinois law. Mosley also contends that the officers committed a Brady violation by withholding the evidence that Reed was drunk as hell on the night of the incident and had no independent recollection of the incident. Mosley argues that this is impeachment evidence and therefore Brady material that should have been disclosed. This argument fails because the state did not call Reed at trial and therefore the state had no obligation to turn over evidence that could impeach his testimony. Furthermore, the prosecution did decide to move forward with the trial even after learning this fact. Therefore, even assuming that a Brady violation could occur when a trial ends in acquittal, this claim cannot rise to the level described in Bielanski.