Opinion ID: 771175
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: failure to provide material, exculpatory evidence

Text: 17 Downs first contends that the state deprived her of evidence helpful to her defense. While the state provided her with four reports, Downs did not receive information on some 100 leads contained in the sheriff's file, including pictures and names of suspects, license plate numbers of vehicles matching the description given by Downs, and names and phone numbers of citizens and law enforcement officials with potentially relevant information. Downs argues that these matters were material because (1) additional witnesses would have supported her version of the events and provided her with an opportunity to track down the shooter, and (2) they would have shown that Lane County authorities focused almost immediately on her rather than conducting a proper investigation. She points specifically to a note memorializing a call from a person who overheard a conversation in which a man stated he thought he knew the killer but was afraid to contact authorities because the killer was affiliated with the Free Souls, a motorcycle gang. The notes also contained a record of an early interview with Christie in which she said that she did not know someone had injured her. 18 The prosecution's suppression of evidence favorable to the accused violates due process when the evidence is material to guilt or to punishment. See Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 87 (1963). Evidence is material only if there is a reasonable probability that, had the evidence been disclosed to the defense, the result of the proceeding would have been different. United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 682 (1985). [A] constitutional error occurs, and the conviction must be reversed, only if the evidence is material in the sense that its suppression undermines confidence in the outcome of the trial. Id. at 678. 19 The state court granted the state's summary judgment motion on this claim. The district court, after permitting Downs to take discovery and conducting an independent review of the record, denied the claim, finding that Downs's argument amounts to speculation that the withheld material might have led to some admissible evidence which might have been sufficiently favorable to meet the Bagley standard. 20 The district court's characterization of Downs's claim is correct. The most that can be said of these materials is that they might have provided investigatory leads. Brady does not require a prosecutor to turn over files reflecting leads and ongoing investigations where no exonerating or impeaching evidence has turned up. See United States v. Agurs, 427 U.S. 97, 109 (1976); Coleman v. Calderon, 150 F.3d 1105, 111617 (9th Cir. 1998) (failure to disclose evidence of other suspects not material because there was no direct or circumstantial evidence linking the third persons to the crime), judgment rev'd on other grounds, 525 U.S. 141, 119 S. Ct. 500 (1998), cert. denied, 525 U.S. 1058, 119 S. Ct. 625 (1998). Downs's arguments, moreover, are speculative and fail to point out, as required by Bagley, how production of these materials would have created a reasonable probability of a different result. 473 U.S. at 682. As for the notes of the early interview of Christie in which, due to her aphasia, she was able to respond only by opening or closing her eyes, they indicate only that at that time Christie did not know that she had been hurt. They said nothing about how she might have been hurt, and Christie's initial lack of memory was brought out at trial. As the notes do not cast doubt on the verdict, the state court's rejection of this claim was not clearly erroneous. 21