Opinion ID: 1009453
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Michael Fulcher

Text: Michael Fulcher is Theresa Hodges’ half-brother. Fulcher, a drug dealer, worked as an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) during the 1980s and continued to offer information to the DEA after his incarceration in 1991. At trial, Bramblett argued that the Hodgeses were killed in retaliation for Fulcher’s activities. In his state habeas petition, Bramblett claimed that the State had withheld materially exculpatory information regarding Fulcher. In support of this claim, Bramblett submitted an affidavit from defense investigator David Williams, who claimed that subsequent to trial he had learned that: (1) the Virginia State Police were investigating Fulcher for drug dealing and money laundering (crimes of which he was later convicted) contemporaneously with the investigation of the Hodges murders; and (2) Fulcher, who was incarcerated, was placed in protective segregation during this time frame. J.A. 28. Bramblett cannot demonstrate prejudice for his default of this claim because the failure to disclose this information did not violate Brady. Even assuming that the facts that Fulcher committed other crimes and that he was segregated for his own protection support Bramblett’s theory that the Hodgeses were killed in retaliation for Fulcher’s activities as an informant, this evidence is clearly not material to Bramblett’s guilt or innocence. Simply put, Bramblett offers nothing more than the barest speculation to connect Fulcher’s activities to the murders.