Opinion ID: 2395593
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Materiality of the Evidence

Text: The final hurdle the accused must clear in order to establish a Brady violation is materiality. Not all instances of suppression of evidence warrant a new trial. Instead, the suppressed evidence must be material to the guilt or the punishment of the accused in order to violate due process and entitle the defendant to a new trial. The United States Supreme Court recently explicated, and modified, the standard of materiality in cases of prosecutorial suppression in Bagley. The Supreme Court applied the Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), reasonable probability test for assessing claims of ineffective assistance of counsel to prosecutorial non-disclosure of information in the context of the Brady rule. The Court stated: [I]n Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984), the Court held that a new trial must be granted when evidence is not introduced because of the incompetence of counsel only if there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different. Id., at 694 [104 S.Ct. at 2068].... We find the Strickland formulation of the ... test for materiality sufficiently flexible to cover the no request, general request, and specific request cases of prosecutorial failure to disclose evidence favorable to the accused: The 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. A reasonable probability is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome. Bagley, 473 U.S. at 682, 105 S.Ct. at 3383. This Court discussed the Brady materiality requirement in State v. Thomas, 325 Md. 160, 190, 599 A.2d 1171, 1185 (1992). [14] In Thomas, a death penalty case, the appellant argued that the State's failure to disclose police reports concerning the murder victim's violent criminal activities deprived him of a fair trial. Judge Karwacki, writing for the Court, articulated the applicable standard to determine whether the State's failure to disclose evidence warrants overturning the conviction: Evidence is considered material, and relief is therefore appropriate, if there is a reasonable probability that, had the evidence been disclosed to the defense, the result of the proceeding would have been different. A `reasonable probability' is a probability sufficient to undermine confidence in the outcome. United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 682, 105 S.Ct. 3375, 3383, 87 L.Ed.2d 481, 494 (1985); State v. Tichnell, 306 Md. 428, 462-63, 509 A.2d 1179, 1196-97 (1986), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 995, 107 S.Ct. 598, 93 L.Ed.2d 598 (1986), rehearing denied, 479 U.S. 1060, 107 S.Ct. 942, 93 L.Ed.2d 992 (1987). In the instant case, we discern no substantial possibility8 that, had the police reports been revealed to Thomas's counsel, the result of the trial would have been any different. 8 This standard reflects our interpretation of the reasonable probability language employed by the Supreme Court in Strickland. Bowers v. State, 320 Md. at 426-27, 578 A.2d at 739. Thomas, 325 Md. at 190 & n. 8, 599 A.2d at 1185 & n. 8 (footnote omitted). [15] The United States Supreme Court refined the standard for materiality in its most recent pronouncement on the subject. See Kyles v. Whitley, 514 U.S. 419, 115 S.Ct. 1555, 131 L.Ed.2d 490 (1995). In Kyles, Justice Kennedy, writing for the Court, emphasized four aspects of materiality under Bagley. First, a showing of materiality does not require the accused to demonstrate by a preponderance of the evidence that the disclosure of the suppressed evidence would have resulted in an acquittal; rather, the touchstone of materiality is whether the suppression undermines confidence in the outcome of the trial. Id. at 434, 115 S.Ct. at 1566. The Court explained: Bagley's touchstone of materiality is a reasonable probability of a different result, and the adjective is important. The question is not whether the defendant would more likely than not have received a different verdict with the evidence, but whether in its absence [the defendant] received a fair trial, understood as a trial resulting in a verdict worthy of confidence. A reasonable probability of a different result is accordingly shown when the Government's evidentiary suppression undermines confidence in the outcome of the trial. Id. Second, the Bagley materiality standard is not a sufficiency of the evidence test in that the defendant need not demonstrate that disclosure of the exculpatory evidence would have left the State with too little inculpatory evidence to convict. Id. at 434-35, 115 S.Ct. at 1566. Rather, one shows a Brady violation by demonstrating that the favorable evidence could reasonably be taken to put the whole case in such a different light as to undermine confidence in the verdict. Id. Third, once the materiality standard has been satisfied, a harmless error review is not appropriate, because, by definition, no Bagley error could ever be harmless. Id. at 435, 115 S.Ct. at 1566. Finally, materiality is considered in terms of the suppressed evidence collectively, not item-by-item. Id. at 436-37, 115 S.Ct. at 1567.