Court Opinion

ID: 9498011
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:05:45.653812+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:58:33.245562
License: Public Domain

CLAY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I dissent because the district court should have granted Harbison’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus on the ground that the prosecution violated Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963). Harbison has shown cause and actual prejudice for his failure to raise his Brady claim in state court prior to seeking habeas relief in federal court.
I.
Brady Violation
Harbison’s trial, counsel filed several pre-trial motions for discovery, requesting exculpatory information and witness statements. See J.A. 24 (motion for discovery of documents “which are material to the preparation of the defense”); J.A. 26 (motion for order compelling “the State to furnish [Harbison] with any and all exculpatory evidence of which the State, its agents, employees, attorney generals and law enforcement officials have knowledge that may tend to exonerate defendant of the charge or may mitigate any punishment,for him”); J.A. 28 (motion to compel disclosure of Brady materials relevant to sentencing). Despite several court orders compelling disclosure of these materials, the State did not produce evidence contained in Chattanooga Police Department records favorable to the defense.
Excerpts from the undisclosed, files of Detective Larry Foster, the officer principally responsible for investigating Edith Russell’s murder, indicate that Ray Harrison had a motive to burglarize and/or murder Edith Russell. Ray Harrison told Detective Foster that he had tried to sell Russell a ring the previous week, but that she did not buy it. (J.A. 918.) Harrison’s cousin, Benny Goins, confirmed that he had given a ring to Ray Harrison a week before Russell’s death and that Harrison was supposed to sell the ring for him. (J.A. 961-62.) Ray Harrison’s wife, Charlene, told Detective Foster that Russell had taken the ring to a jeweler for an appraisal and purportedly determined that it contained a fake diamond. (J.A. 1077.) *838Detective Foster’s interview with Ray Harrison’s brother-in-law indicated that “Ray Harrison and Benny Goins were mad at Edith Russell because they believed that she had ‘switched rings on Ray.’ ” (J.A. 978.)
Other entries in Detective Foster’s file suggest that Ray Harrison and David Schreane (who participated in the robbery of Russell’s home) were together On the day of the murder and in close proximity to the Russell residence. Charlene Harrison told Detective Foster that her husband was with the Lynns, Russell’s across-the-street neighbors, on the day of the murder. (J.A. 1077.) In addition, David Schreane admitted that he smoked marijuana with Linda Lynn in front of the Lynns’ house during the afternoon of the murder. (J.A. 976.)
The majority discounts this evidence because “no one put Harrison at the Lynn house on the day of the murder.” Maj. Op. at 835. As support, the majority quotes Charlene Harrison’s statement to Detective Foster that Harrison had “ ‘spent all evening with Tommy and Larry Lynn in Ft. Oglethorpe and they returned Saturday night at between 10:30 and 11:00 P.M. on 1-15.’ ” Id. (quoting J.A. 1077). It is true that Charlene Harrison’s statement does not necessarily place her husband at the Lynns’ house, but the jury could have inferred this fact from her statement. Significantly, she did not tell Detective Foster that her husband “returned to her house ” between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m., only that her • husband and the Lynns “returned” between those times. Charlene Harrison could have meant that they returned to the Lynns’ house by 10:30 or 11:00 p.m. According to the Tennessee Supreme Court, Edith Russell’s husband discovered her dead body at midnight. State v. Harbison, 704 S.W.2d 314, 315 (Tenn. 1986). Therefore, the undisclosed Brady material reasonably could suggest that Harrison was in close proximity to the Russell home at the time of Edith Russell’s murder, which took place at some point before midnight.
In asserting that the possibility that Russell was murdered near midnight “is not a logical conclusion from the record,” Maj. Op. at 835 n. 7, the majority inappropriately assumes the role of factfinder and denies that the jury which actually convicted Harbison and sentenced him to death would have been permitted to find to the contrary. Because, as the majority notes, there is nothing in the record that indicates a precise time of death, Op. at 825, Harbison was entitled to present the undisclosed evidence to a jury in a light most favorable to him.
Ultimately, the majority’s view about Russell’s time of death is irrelevant because other undisclosed evidence actually places Harrison at the scene of her murder. David Boss told Detective Foster that Charlene Harrison had told him that Ray Harrison was actually inside Edith Russell’s house on the night of the murder with another person. (J.A. 921-23.) She also told Boss that Ray Harrison did not kill Russell, but that when Russell entered her house, “they” (including Harrison) ran away. Id. Boss’s statement certainly would support a defense theory that Harrison not only had the motive and opportunity to murder Russell, but actually participated in that crime, thereby potentially shifting blame away from Harbison.
The majority argues that this evidence would not have assisted Harbison’s alibi defense because Charlene Harrison’s reference to “they” is consistent with the possibility that both Schreane and Harbi-son were with Harrison at the time of the murder. Maj. Op. at 835. Although the majority’s characterization of this statement is plausible, Harbison should have *839been afforded the opportunity to present an equally plausible and reasonable alternative to the jury that supported his alibi defense: that only Harrison and Schreane were present at Edith Russell’s murder.
Boss also told Detective Foster that he saw Ray Harrison on the morning after the murder and observed him to be “a little scared and shaky” and “scared to death.” (J.A. 926.) Harrison asked Boss “if the polices [sic] had been there” and said “that they were cornin’ back with a search warrant.” Id. Moreover, Harrison’s brother-in-law told Detective Foster that Charlene Harrison was concerned because she could not locate the jacket Ray Harrison had been wearing on the night of the murder. (J.A. 978-79.)
True to form, the majority discounts this Brady material by insisting that there is only one plausible view of the evidence. The majority speculates as to “several reasons why Harrison might be concerned by the interest from the police in searching his residence with a search warrant.” Maj. Op. at 835. Although the majority’s explanations are plausible, it is equally plausible that Harrison was scared to death because he had murdered Edith Russell the night before and was deeply concerned about the police apprehending him.
Finally, an undisclosed excerpt from Detective Foster’s file suggests that David Schreane falsely implicated Harbison in Russell’s murder. A witness named Ome-nys West told Detective Foster that he knew David Schreane because he used to commit burglaries with him in the St. Elmo area, where Edith Russell lived. (J.A. 1010.) Subsequent to the murder, West and Schreane happened to be in the same courthouse cell with regard to their respective burglary charges. (J.A. 1011.) At that time, Schreane told West that he had been committing burglaries in the St. Elmo area. (J.A. 1011-12.) Later, Schre-ane told West that he was upset that his brother-in-law (Harbison) “had been tryin’ to talk to his old lady, and that his brother-in-law was the one that killed the woman out there on, in St. Elmo.” (J.A. 1012.) West reiterated to Detective Foster that Schreape had told him that, Harbison had killed “that bitch in St. Elmo,” namely Edith Russell. (J.A. 1016-17.) In a summary of his interview of West, however, Detective Foster stated that Schreane had told West that Schreane’s “brother-in-law [Harbison] was messing with his girlfriend and if he did not stop Schreane said he would put the murder in St. Elmo on him.” (J.A. 1082.)
The district court discounted Schreane’s jailhouse statement because Schreane did not testify at Harbison’s trial and, therefore, Schreane’s statement could not have been used to impeach him. It is conceivable, however, that Harbison could have used Schreane’s statement on cross-examination of Detective Foster, who was principally responsible for investigating Russell’s murder. Harbison could have asked the detective whether and to what extent the police pursued an investigation of Ray Harrison in light of Schreane’s motive to falsely implicate Harbison in the murder. Such cross-examination had the potential of undermining the prosecutor’s argument that the police had conducted a thorough investigation for all possible suspects in the murder. See J.A. 1676-77. Armed with knowledge that Harrison was a legitimate suspect in the murder, Harbison likely would have altered his trial strategy. In addition to attempting to establish an alibi defense and arguing that his confession had been coerced by police threats to take away his girlfriend’s children, he could have introduced additional evidence shifting blame for the murder to Harrison. *840This possibility undermines confidence in Harbison’s guilty verdict.
According to Brady v. Maryland, “the suppression by the prosecution of evidence favorable to an accused .. .violates due process where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment, irrespective of the good faith or bad faith of the prosecution.” 373 U.S. at 87, 83 S.Ct. 1194; see also Strickler v. Greene, 527 U.S. 263, 288, 119 S.Ct. 1936, 144 L.Ed.2d 286 (1999) (“[U]nder Brady an inadvertent nondisclosure has the same impact on the fairness of the proceedings as deliberate concealment.”). Favorable evidence is material “ ‘if there is a reasonable probability that, had the evidence been disclosed to the defense, the result of the proceeding would have been different.’ ” Id. at 280, 119 S.Ct. 1936 (quoting United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 682, 105 S.Ct. 3375, 87 L.Ed.2d 481 (1985)). However, “[t]he question is not whether the defendant would more likely than not have received a different verdict with the evidence, but whether in its absence he received a fair trial, understood as a trial resulting in a verdict worthy of confidence.” Kyles v. Whitley, 514 U.S. 419, 434, 115 S.Ct. 1555, 131 L.Ed.2d 490 (1995).
The Brady rule “encompasses evidence ‘known only to police investigators and not to the prosecutor.’ ” Strickler, 527 U.S. at 280-81, 119 S.Ct. 1936 (quoting Kyles, 514 U.S. at 438, 115 S.Ct. 1555). The rule applies only to evidence discovered after trial that was unknown to the defense at the time of trial. United States v. Mullins, 22 F.3d 1365, 1371 (6th Cir.1994) (citing United States v. Agurs, 427 U.S. 97, 103, 96 S.Ct. 2392, 49 L.Ed.2d 342 (1976)). The prosecutor has a duty to disclose Brady material even when the accused does not specifically request it, United States v. Agurs, 427 U.S. 97, 107, 96 S.Ct. 2392, 49 L.Ed.2d 342 (1976), and the duty encompasses impeachment evidence as well as exculpatory evidence, Bagley, 473 U.S. at 676, 105 S.Ct. 3375. “In order to comply with Brady, ... ‘the individual prosecutor has a duty to learn of any favorable evidence known to the others acting on the government’s behalf in this case, including the police.’ ” Strickler, 527 U.S. at 281, 119 S.Ct. 1936 (quoting Kyles, 514 U.S. at 437, 115 S.Ct. 1555).
Based on these principles, I would hold that the non-disclosure of the above-referenced portions of Detective Foster’s file undermines confidence in Harbison’s guilty verdict because, viewed in its entirety, this evidence could have formed the foundation of a colorable defense that Ray Harrison, not Harbison, murdered Edith Russell and that Schreane falsely implicated Harbison out of jealousy. See Kyles, 514 U.S. at 436, 115 S.Ct. 1555 (holding that the determination of whether undisclosed evidence is “material” requires the reviewing court to determine the suppressed evidence “collectively, not item by item”). Ray Harrison’s wife placed Harrison at the scene of the crime, thereby buttressing Harbison’s alibi defense to the murder charge. The fact that a witness told police that Harrison was “scared to death,” apparently because he expected the police to search his house, lends significant support to the theory that Harrison was involved in Russell’s murder. The additional fact that Schreane had a motive to falsely link Harbison to Russell’s murder solidifies the conclusion that there is a reasonable probability that Harbison would have been able to shift blame for the murder from himself had the police records been disclosed to him.
Harbison might have been found guilty even if he had been able to present this suppressed evidence' to the jury. But it is not his burden to demonstrate that presentation of the suppressed evidence would have led to his acquittal. See Id. at 434-*84135, 115 S.Ct. 1555 (“A defendant need not demonstrate that after discounting the in-culpatory evidence in light of the undisclosed evidence, there would not have been enough left to convict.”). Harbison need only show “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. at 435, 115 S.Ct. 1555. Here, Harbison reasonably could have used the suppressed evidence to shift blame for the murder to Harrison. Although, as the majority points out, the prosecution would have been able to marshal plausible responses to such evidence, Harbison at least had the right to present his best possible defense to the jury. The prosecution’s Brady violation denied Harbison that right.
II.
Cause and Prejudice Excuses Any Procedural Default
The majority holds that Harbison procedurally defaulted his Brady claim. Harbi-son may avoid any procedural default, however, “by showing that there was cause for the default and prejudice resulting from the default, or that a miscarriage of justice will result from enforcing the procedural default in the petitioner’s case.” Lancaster v. Adams, 324 F.3d 423, 436 (6th Cir.2003) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). “Cause is shown when the factual basis of the claim was ‘reasonably unknown’ to the defendant’s counsel.” Jamison v. Collins, 291 F.3d 380, 388 (6th Cir.2002) (quoting Amadeo v. Zant, 486 U.S. 214, 222, 108 S.Ct. 1771, 100 L.Ed.2d 249 (1988)). Harbison has made just such a showing.
A. Cause
Harbison’s trial counsel made at least three separate requests for exculpatory information, which the trial court granted, but the prosecutor did not produce the portions of Detective Foster’s file discussed above. Harbison’s trial counsel could not have obtained the file records directly from the Chattanooga Police Department because, at the time of trial in 1983, the documents were exempt from disclosure under state public records law. Tenn.Code Ann. §§ 10-7-101 et seq. At Harbison’s state post-conviction hearing in 1991, it was established that Harbison’s post-conviction counsel had subpoenaed Detective Foster’s file from the Chattanooga Police Department. The transcript of the hearing further indicates that, in response to the request, Detective Clyde L. Wilhoit had attempted to locate Detective Foster’s file, but that Wilhoit had no information regarding its location and, therefore, did not bring it to court. (J.A. 1778-79.)
The majority dismisses Wilhoit’s testimony, concluding that Wilhoit stated only that he was unaware of the location of Detective Foster’s file, not that any individual at the police department had been charged with the task of locating that particular file. See Maj. Op. at 834. This is patently untrue. Because Detective Foster was deceased by the time of Harbison’s post-conviction hearing in 1991, Harbison subpoenaed Wilhoit, who had assisted Foster in the investigation of Edith Russell’s murder. The subpoena commanded Wil-hoit to bring with him to the post-conviction hearing “[a]ny and all records, files or documents in his possession or in the possession of the Chattanooga Police Department relative to the cause of State of Tennessee v. Edward Jerome Harbison, Jr.” Thus, on pain of contempt, Wilhoit was charged with the task of making a diligent search of the Chattanooga Police Department’s records for that file. The clear import of Wilhoit’s sworn testimony that he could not locate Detective Foster’s *842file was that, as far as the Chattanooga Police Department was concerned, Detective Foster’s file on the Edith Russell murder was lost.
The post-conviction testimony of former Chief Detective James M. Davis from 1991 does not prove otherwise. Although Davis insisted that Detective Foster’s file was still at the police department, he further testified that he had left the department in 1983, eight years before he testified at Harbison’s post-conviction hearing. Accordingly, his bald assertion that Detective Foster’s file still existed in 1991 was utterly without foundation. Nevertheless, the majority credits Davis’s speculations over that of a current employee of the police department (Wilhoit), who was charged with the task of locating the file in 1991 but could not locate it at that time, and reaches the remarkable conclusion that Wilhoit’s and Davis’s testimony shows that “there was a very strong possibility that the relevant files would be available if requested through the appropriate channels.” Slip Op. at 8. I cannot fathom how the majority reaches this conclusion when Harbison’s subpoena ducus tecum (clearly an “appropriate channel[ ]”) failed to yield these files.
The majority dismisses the significance of the Wilhoit subpoena because it “is not in the record from the district court, nor was it mentioned in Harbison’s brief to this court.” Maj. Op. at 837. It is the majority, however, who has made the Wil-hoit subpoena an issue in this case. The majority asserts that there is no evidence in the district court record that any individuals at the Chattanooga Police Department “were charged with the task of locating” Detective Foster’s file. Id. at 834. Warden Bell, however, never advanced this position in support of his procedural default argument in the district court, nor has he presented it to this Court. See Respondent’s Br. at 32-22, 40 (arguing that Harbison procedurally defaulted his Brady claim because he could have made a public records request for Detective Foster’s file).- The majority’s assertion is a new argument, raised for the first time today. Harbison had no way of knowing that the Wilhoit. subpoena would be relevant and that he therefore should have introduced it in the district court or included it in the Joint Appendix.
“Because this court sits to decide real cases, not abstract questions of law, and because an adequate understanding of a case is essential to our decision,” Rodic v. Thistledown Racing Club, Inc., 615 F.2d 736, 738 (6th Cir.1980), the Court should fully examine the record in Harbison’s state post-conviction proceeding and take judicial notice of the Wilhoit subpoena. See id. (“ ‘Federal courts may take judicial notice of proceedings in other courts of record.’ ”) (quoting Granader v. Pub. Bank, 417 F.2d 75, 82-83 (6th Cir.1969)). Alternatively, this Court can and should supplement the record under our equitable power, even though the district court apparently did not consider the Wilhoit subpoena. See Thompson v. Bell, 373 F.3d 688, 690-91 (6th Cir.2004) (invoking the Court’s “inherent equitable powers to expand the record on appeal” even though the evidence was not made part of the district court record), cert, granted on other grounds, — U.S. -, 125 S.Ct. 823, 160 L.Ed.2d 609 (2005). The interests of justice require this Court to consider the Wilhoit subpoena in order to assess the merits of the majority’s argument that Harbison has failed to present evidence that anyone at the Chattanooga Police Department was ever charged with the task of locating Detective Foster’s file.
A fair reading of the available record in this case demonstrates that Harbison did not procedurally default his Brady claim. *843The Supreme Court’s decision in Strickler is instructive. There, the State gave the petitioner access to all of the evidence in the prosecutor’s files, such that, petitioner’s counsel did not file a pretrial motion for discovery of possible exculpatory evidence. Strickler, 527 U.S. at 276, 119 S.Ct. 1936. The prosecutor (probably unintentionally) failed to disclose notes taken by a detective during interviews with an eyewitness as well as letters written by the eyewitness to the detective. Id. at 273-75, 119 S.Ct. 1936. After the defendant was convicted and his conviction was affirmed in the state courts, he filed a federal habeas action wherein he was granted the right to examine and copy all of the police and prosecution files in the case. Id. at 278, 119 S.Ct. 1936. When the petitioner discovered the undisclosed notes and letters, he raised a Brady claim for the first time. Id.
The Supreme Court held there was cause for the petitioner’s failure to raise his Brady claim in state court because it was reasonable for both trial and post-conviction counsel “to rely on, not just the presumption that the prosecutor would fully perform his duty to disclose all exculpatory materials, but also the implicit representation that such materials would be included in the open files tendered to defense counsel for examination.” Id. at 284, 119 S.Ct. 1936. The respondent argued that the fact that the district court entered an order allowing discovery of the undisclosed police files indicated that “diligent counsel could have obtained a similar order from the state court.” Id. at 284-85, 119 S.Ct. 1936. The Court rejected this argument because petitioner’s counsel had every reason to believe that the State had discharged its Brady obligations at trial through its open file policy. Id. at 288, 119 S.Ct. 1936. Mere speculation that some exculpatory material may have been withheld did not “suffice to impose a duty on counsel to advance a claim for which they ha[d] no evidentiary support.” Id. at 286, 119 S.Ct. 1936. As the Court elaborated:
Proper respect for state procedures counsels against a requirement that all possible claims be raised in state collateral proceedings, even when no known facts support them. The presumption, well established by “ ‘tradition and expe- ' rience,’ ” that prosecutors have fully “ ‘discharged their official duties,’ ” United States v. Mezzanatto, 513 U.S. 196, 210, 115 S.Ct. 797, 130 L.Ed.2d 697 (1995), is inconsistent with the novel suggestion that conscientious defense counsel have a procedural obligation to assert constitutional error on the basis of mere suspicion that some prosecutorial misstep may have occurred.
Id. at 286-87,119 S.Ct. 1936.
As in Strickler, Harbison filed numerous discovery motions for Brady materials, all of which were granted. Harbison’s counsel was entitled to rely on not only the presumption that the prosecutor would fully perform his duty to disclose all exculpatory materials, but also the implicit representation that such materials (including Detective Foster’s complete file) would be included in the evidence actually tendered to defense counsel for examination. The State violated Brady when the prosecutor failed to disclose all of Detective Foster’s files to Harbison in 1983.
Warden Bell appears to concede as much, but argues that, as of January 29, 1992, Harbison had an alternative means of obtaining Detective Foster’s file. While Harbison’s case was on appeal from the denial of state post-conviction relief, the Tennessee Court of Appeals held that police records become public records that are open for disclosure upon conclusion of the direct appeal, and convicted felons (al*844though prohibited from obtaining public records themselves) can obtain them through counsel. See Capital Case Resource Ctr. of Term., Inc. v. Woodall, No. 01-A-019104CH00150, 1992 WL 12217 (Tenn.Ct.App. Jan.29, 1992) (holding that the District Attorney General could not deny a request for access to the prosecution and police files on a rape/murder case by attorneys representing the person convicted of the crimes in a pending habeas corpus proceeding in federal court because such files were not exempt from disclosure under the Tennessee Public Records Act, TENN. CODE ANN. §§ 10-7-101, et seq.); Wright v. State, 987 S.W.2d 26, 29 (Tenn.1999) (agreeing that the date of the decision in Woodall was the relevant date for purposes of determining when the petitioner should have first become aware of his right to access public records that previously had been exempt from disclosure). Warden Bell argues (and the majority agrees) that by waiting until his federal habeas action in 1997 to make a public records request to the Chattanooga Police Department, Harbison simply waited too long (five years) to obtain the evidence that underpins his Brady claim.
Warden Bell’s reasoning is flawed for the same reasons advanced by the respondent in Strickler. Warden Bell assumes that Harbison had a factual basis to make a public records request for Detective Foster’s files during that five-year period. He clearly did not. First, Harbison’s trial and post-trial counsel were entitled to rely on the presumption that the prosecutor had produced all Brady material in response to Harbison’s pre-trial discovery requests. Second, as discussed above, Harbison’s postconviction counsel made a request for Brady material, and Detective Foster’s file in particular, in 1991,-but was told by the officer purportedly in charge of the file (and testifying under oath) that it could not be located. Thus, Harbison had no basis to make a further public records request after 1991. Cf. Strickler, 527 U.S. at 286, 119 S.Ct. 1936 (holding that mere speculation that the files could now be located did not “suffice to impose a duty on counsel to advance a claim for which they ha[d] no evidentiary support”).
In any event, although not technically part of the record on review,1 it is undisputed that in 1995 Harbison’s counsel directed a second public records request for Brady materials to both the Chattanooga Police Department Police Chief and the Chiefs second in command. See Attachment “C” to Harbison’s May 11, %00U Mot. to Supplement the Record at 104-05. No records were produced in response. Id. at 106. Moreover, Harbison’s counsel followed up the record requests with a telephone call to Stanley Lanzo of the District *845Attorney’s Office, who informed counsel that there were no records other than what had already been produced. Id. The reality-based facts therefore show that there was at most a two-year delay between Harbison’s last request for the Brady material and the request he made after filing his habeas action in federal court. And, given that the State had told Harbi-son (a) implicitly in 1983 that he had all Brady material, (b) explicitly in 1991 that potential Brady material could not be located, and (c) explicitly in 1995 there was no other Brady material, there clearly is cause for Harbison’s failure to discover the factual basis of his Brady claim until 1997.
In holding that Harbison failed to demonstrate cause for his procedural default, the majority ignores the similarity between this case and the facts in Strickler and instead relies upon the Supreme Court’s decision in Banks v. Dretke, 540 U.S. 668, 124 S.Ct. 1256, 157 L.Ed.2d 1166 (2004). Although the majority correctly notes that Banks involved instances of egregious prosecutorial concealment of Brady evidence and intentional misrepresentation, the merits of Harbison’s Brady claim do not hinge on whether his prosecutors intentionally or deliberately withheld Brady evidence. See Strickler, 527 U.S. at 282, 119 S.Ct. 1936 (holding that one component of a Brady violation is that the evidence was “suppressed by the State, either willfully or inadvertently ”) (emphasis added); id. at 288, 119 S.Ct. 1936 (“[Ujnder Brady an inadvertent nondisclosure has the same impact on the fairness of the proceedings as deliberate concealment.”). “ ‘If the suppression of the evidence results in constitutional error, it is because of the character of the evidence, not the character of the prosecutor.’ ” Id. (quoting Agurs, 427 U.S. at 110, 96 S.Ct. 2392). Consistently, the “cause” inquiry in Brady cases “turns on events or circumstances ‘external to the defense.’ ” Banks, 540 U.S. at 696, 124 S.Ct. 1256 (quoting Amadeo v. Zant, 486 U.S. 214, 222, 108 S.Ct. 1771, 100 L.Ed.2d 249 (1988) (quoting Murray v. Carrier, 477 U.S. 478, 488, 106 S.Ct. 2639, 91 L.Ed.2d 397 (1986))). A State’s inadvertent suppression of Brady material is no less external to the defense than a willful one. Indeed, in Strickler, the fact that the prosecutor’s failure to disclose Brady material was inadvertent, see Strickler, 527 U.S. at 275 n. 12, 119 S.Ct. 1936, did not preclude the Court from finding cause for the procedural default, see id. at 289, 119 S.Ct. 1936. Here, Harbison’s counsel reasonably relied on the State’s implicit and explicit representations that there was either no other Brady evidence to discover or that requesting further discovery of such material would be futile. Accordingly, there was cause for his procedural default, notwithstanding the purported lack of evidence of deliberate prosecutorial concealment.
The majority makes the same fundamental error in attempting to distinguish Freshwater v. State, 160 S.W.3d 548 (Tenn.Crim.App.2004). There, the petitioner, Margo Freshwater, had been tried and convicted of first degree murder in 1969. Id. at 550. At trial, Freshwater’s attorney requested the written statement of any informer, but the prosecution produced only portions of these statements. Id. at 556. Less than a year after her conviction was affirmed on direct appeal, Freshwater escaped from prison and remained at large until 2002. Id. at 555. In September 2002, Freshwater’s counsel discovered the informer’s complete statement during a review of the District Attorney’s case file. Id. at 557, 558. In 2003, Freshwater filed a petition for a writ of error coram nobis, alleging that new evidence existed that proved her innocence, as well as complaining of a Brady violation. Id. at 550. The State moved to dismiss based on the one-*846year statute of limitations. Id. at 558. The State argued that the petitioner was at fault for failing to bring the Brady claim sooner because she had been a fugitive for 33 years. Id. at 556.
The court disagreed with the State’s argument and held that the delay in obtaining the evidence was not attributable to the fault of the petitioner or her attorneys. Id. at 556. The court explained:
Despite the fact that the petitioner escaped from prison and remained at large for over thirty years, the petitioner’s trial counsel specifically requested the written statement of “any informer once held in the DeSoto County [Mississippi] Jail” as part of a discovery request. That information was not provided to the petitioner at trial. The fact that the petitioner escaped from jail and remained a fugitive for many years does not change the fact that the evidence was withheld by the State. Even if the petitioner had not escaped we have no reason to believe this evidence would have been disclosed voluntarily. Indeed, if the State’s position in this appeal were to prevail, criminal defendants, in order to protect their rights to file a coram nobis petition, would be required in every case to examine every prosecution file following their convictions in order to determine whether exculpatory evidence was withheld. We cannot believe this is something the State really wants.
Id. The court therefore held that due process precluded the dismissal of Freshwater’s Brady claim based upon a statutory time bar. Id. at 557.
As was the case in Freshwater, Harbi-son’s trial attorneys requested the exculpatory information contained in the police records, but the State did not produce them for another 14 years. The State’s nondisclosure was just as deliberate as the nondisclosure in Freshwater. In fact, the non-disclosure was more deliberate in Har-bison’s case; for when post-conviction counsel requested the police records in 1991, he was told that the records could not be located, and after his request in 1995, was informed that nothing was available beyond what already had been produced. If Freshwater, who waited 32 years before making a postconviction request for Brady information because she was a fugitive, had cause for her procedural default, then it follows, a fortiori, that Harbison, who made at least two additional requests for Brady material and was told that no such information could be located or existed, did not have to make what reasonably would have appeared to be a third futile request in order to establish cause.
B. Prejudice from Non-Disclosure of Police Records
For the reasons discussed in Part I, supra, I would hold that the evidence contained in Detective Foster’s file denied Harbison a fair trial and demonstrates that his guilty verdict is unworthy of confidence. Accordingly, I would hold that Harbison satisfied the prejudice prong of the procedural default analysis and that the district court should have granted Har-bison a writ of habeas corpus on his Brady claim.
III.
Conclusion
For all the foregoing reasons, I dissent.