Opinion ID: 1266317
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Cumulative Effect of the Brady Violations

Text: Both Cobaugh and Pletcher were critical witnesses at Simmons's trial, providing the main testimony that tied him to Knaze's murder. The other witnesses identifying Simmons as the man talking to Knaze on the day of her death, Thelma Blough, her son Gary Blough, and Tammy Ickes, only belatedly did so after each had already seen him either in person or in a photograph identified as the person charged with Knaze's murder. The prosecution appears to have recognized Cobaugh's central role in its case, beginning its opening statement with the threat that Simmons allegedly made against Cobaugh during her assault and referencing that threat several more times as the key to identifying Simmons as Knaze's killer. The Commonwealth itself called Cobaugh a critical witness. (Supp.App.269.) Pletcher's testimony was also pivotal, as her deviation from her original story that Simmons had been with her the night of May 5 deprived him of a potential alibi defense as to the attack on Cobaugh. Yet Cobaugh's and Pletcher's testimony had certain flaws. Cobaugh had not asserted that she could identify her attacker, or even mentioned the attacker's statement regarding Knaze, until after Knaze's murder was publicized and Simmons was charged as her killer. Meanwhile, Pletcher had changed her account of Simmons's whereabouts on the evening of Cobaugh's assault, at first stating that he had been with her the entire night of May 5 and only later recollecting that he had actually come home late and drunk on that date. Cobaugh's testimony might have been further debunked by some of the Brady material suppressed by the prosecution. The defense could have cited the inconclusive lab reports as highlighting the lack of physical evidence tying Simmons to Cobaugh's assault. Additionally, the knowledge that Cobaugh had been unable to identify Simmons from a mug book even after seeing his picture in the media might have made the jury more dubious of her accusation that Simmons was the man who threatened and tried to rape her, especially since in her initial report Cobaugh did not suggest that she would be able to identify her attacker. Most importantly, the inconsistencies in both Cobaugh's and Pletcher's stories, revealed on cross-examination, meant that the jurors were well-primed to hear that these two witnesses had good reason to come up with testimony helpful to the prosecution. Without the evidence suppressed by the prosecution, however, the defense could not credibly proffer such a theory. Had this information been available to the defense before trial, it could have much more effectively attacked the Commonwealth's case on not just one, but two critical fronts. Cf. Kyles, 514 U.S. at 444-45, 115 S.Ct. 1555 (holding that non-disclosure of evidence undermining eyewitness identifications of the defendant by what the state identified as its two best witnesses was material under Brady ). Overall, the picture of what Simmons's trial would have been like had these four Brady violations not occurred is vastly different from what actually happened. The two key witnesses presented by the state would have been substantially less credible, thus undermining the main evidence implicating Simmons in Knaze's death and Cobaugh's assault. Therefore, we agree with the District Court and hold that, cumulatively, the Commonwealth's Brady violations leave us without confidence in Simmons's conviction.