Opinion ID: 778669
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Sawyer v. Stovall

Text: 31 In this case, Sawyer seeks habeas relief from his Ingham County conviction on the basis of the Brady violation in the Hillsdale County case, asserting that the two cases are connected. In dismissing Sawyer's Brady claim, which it deemed rambling and confused, the Michigan Court of Appeals observed that the issue deal[t] with evidence in other cases not relevant here. People v. Sawyer, 222 Mich.App. 1, 564 N.W.2d 62, 65 (1997). Although this conclusion appears rather summary to us, we affirm the district court's dismissal of the Brady claim in this case, having determined that Sawyer is not entitled to habeas relief whether we review de novo or under AEDPA. There is no reasonable probability that the disclosure of the negative test result in the Hillsdale County case would have changed the result of Sawyer's trial in Ingham County. As the district court noted, the evidence may exculpate Sawyer in this case only if Sawyer can make the tricky argument that the perpetrator in the Hillsdale County case, who allegedly deposited the semen on Miller's underwear, was also the perpetrator in the Ingham County case. Joint Appendix II (J.A.II) at 17-18. We conclude that this sort of logical leap is not one that a jury would have made to find Sawyer not guilty, especially given the fact that the victim in this case identified Sawyer at trial. Although Sawyer casts aspersions on the Michigan State Police's suppression of a negative test result in the Hillsdale County case, the nondisclosure did not constitute a violation of Sawyer's constitutional rights in this case.