Opinion ID: 389975
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Benavidez' Testimony

Text: 12 Appellants submit that F. Benavidez, a codefendant under the first indictment who turned into a star prosecution witness at the trial on the superseding indictment, was a paid Government informer planted in the defense camp during the pre-trial proceedings, the jury selection, and the private plea negotiations for the trial that was never held on the initial indictment. This subterfuge was said to have been in violation of the appellants' sixth amendment right to counsel. Furthermore, the defendants argue that the Government refused to make his status known pursuant to their valid demands for such information made under the mandate of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963). Accordingly, the appellants contend Benavidez' testimony should have been excluded. 13 As noted in United States v. Ocanas, 628 F.2d 353, 359 (5th Cir. 1980): 6 14 The record, however, is wholly insufficient to permit us to rule on this point. Appellants rely on suspicion and inference, while the record reflects virtually nothing about the nature and extent of the relationship between Benevides (sic) and the government, about what information he may have gathered and transmitted, or about the role that information played at trial. We accordingly decline to rule on this point, which appellants may raise in a 28 U.S.C. § 2255 petition. (footnote omitted). 15 We can do nothing but agree with this decision of our brothers in the companion case quoted above. 7