Opinion ID: 6108354
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Evidence Withheld by the State

Text: It is a violation of Brady v. Maryland , 373 U.S. 83 , 83 S.Ct. 1194 , 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), and a ground for the writ if the defense was prejudiced because the State wrongfully withheld evidence from the defense prior to trial. The Court held in Brady that the suppression by the prosecution of evidence favorable to an accused upon request violates due process where the evidence is material to guilt or punishment, irrespective of the good faith or bad faith of the prosecution. 373 U.S. at 87 , 83 S.Ct. 1194 . There are three elements of a Brady violation: (1) the evidence at issue must be favorable to the accused, either because it is exculpatory or  because it is impeaching; (2) the evidence must have been suppressed by the State, either willfully or inadvertently; and (3) prejudice must have ensued. Strickler v. Greene , 527 U.S. 263 , 119 S.Ct. 1936 , 144 L.Ed.2d 286 (1999). When determining whether a Brady violation has occurred, it must first be established by the petitioner that the material was available to the State prior to trial and the defense did not have it. Cloird v. State , 357 Ark. 446 , 182 S.W.3d 477 (2004). Mosley alleges that the State did not disclose prior to trial that the victim had denied that an accident had occurred to the vehicle that he was driving when he and the victim traveled to the place where the two engaged in intercourse. He contends that Mosley's vehicle is the DNA that proves Mosley innocent and that the vehicle in Mosley's case disproves the underlying kidnapping. Mosley contended at trial, and on direct appeal, that the State failed to prove that the sex was not consensual. Mosley asserts that, if he could have shown that his car was dented, it would have discredited the victim's testimony, presumably about other matters. It appears that Mosley is contending that the victim did not mention the accident in her testimony until after she learned that the car had been dented and thus her testimony was shown to be unreliable. While Mosley alleges that the victim in a pretrial statement had denied that the accident happened, he does not say when he learned that the State had concealed the statement or otherwise provide any factual substantiation for the claim that it did so. Mosley has not established a Brady violation. He has offered no support for the claim that the pretrial statement was withheld, and allegations without any factual basis to establish the Brady violation are not a ground for the writ. Id. The burden is on the petitioner in an application for a writ of coram nobis to make a full disclosure of specific facts that substantiate the merit of a Brady claim. Grady , 2017 Ark. 245 , 525 S.W.3d 1 . Significantly, Mosley faults his trial attorneys for suppression of information about the accident and for not proffering the information to the court at trial, apparently because he considered the conflict in his and the victim's testimony about whether there was an accident to be important. The crux of the matter at issue, however, was whether Mosley forced the victim to have sex; that is, the State charged that the victim was forcibly raped, while the defense argued that the sex had been consensual. The opinion on direct appeal refers to the victim's graphic description of the act and medical testimony of her injuries, concluding that there was substantial evidence to prove forcible compulsion. Even if Mosley could have established that his car was dented at some point and the victim had denied that fact in a pretrial statement, Mosley has not established that the outcome to the proceeding with respect to whether he had committed rape would have been different. In short, the Brady claim also fails because Mosley does not establish with facts either that the State withheld the statement or that the defense suffered prejudice from the withholding of the statement. A petitioner alleging a Brady violation must be able to show that he suffered prejudice as the result of the suppression of evidence. Howard , 2012 Ark. 177 , 403 S.W.3d 38 .