Opinion ID: 2607856
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: State's Asserted Failure to Preserve Exculpatory Evidence

Text: Defendant claims her conviction should be reversed because the State failed to preserve a tissue that was used to pick up the gun found lying next to the victim. We have previously adopted a three-part test to determine whether the deprivation of evidence constitutes reversible error: 1) The State either breached some duty or intentionally deprived the defendant of evidence; 2) The improperly `suppressed' evidence must have been material; and 3) The suppression of this evidence prejudiced the defendant. State v. Chouinard, 96 N.M. 658, 661, 634 P.2d 680, 683 (1981), cert. denied, 456 U.S. 930, 102 S.Ct. 1980, 72 L.Ed.2d 447 (1982). See also State v. Johnson, 99 N.M. 682, 662 P.2d 1349 (1983). The record in this case contains no evidence that defendant was intentionally deprived of the tissue. There is no indication in the record as to what happened to the tissue. However, testimony was given which indicated that the police were not concerned with the tissue because they believed that it did not have any evidentiary value. Upon review of the record, we find this belief to have been reasonable. State v. Johnson ; State v. Stephens, 93 N.M. 368, 600 P.2d 820 (1979). The tissue was not material, and its unavailability did not prejudice the defendant. As the United States Supreme Court has said, The mere possibility that an item of undisclosed information might have helped the defense, or might have affected the outcome of the trial, does not establish `materiality' in the constitutional sense. United States v. Agurs, 427 U.S. 97, 110-111, 96 S.Ct. 2392, 2400-2401, 49 L.Ed.2d 342 (1976). The failure of the State to preserve the tissue used by officers to pick up the gun found next to the victim was not reversible error, and was not error of such a nature that it added substantially to the aggregate of errors which took place at trial.