Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Criminal Procedure — exculpatory evidence — harmless error

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//March 27, 2014//

Criminal Procedure — exculpatory evidence — harmless error

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//March 27, 2014//

Listen to this article

U.S. Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Criminal

Criminal Procedure — exculpatory evidence — harmless error

Where the evidence of guilt was overwhelming, the prosecutor’s failure to turn over exculpatory evidence is harmless error.

“More than 50 years ago, the Supreme Court announced in Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), that prosecutors have a duty to turn over upon request any material evidence that is favorable to the defense. One would think that by now failures to comply with this rule would be rare. But Brady issues continue to arise. Often, nondisclosure comes at no price for prosecutors, because courts find that the withheld evidence would not have created a ‘reasonable probability of a different result.’ Kyles v. Whitley, 514 U.S. 419, 434 (1995) (quotation omitted). We must leave for another day a closer examination of the incentive structure created by Brady’s harmless-error exception, because the case before us is another in which the Brady violations do not drive the result. The evidence implicating Hector Morales in a vast mail-fraud scheme was overwhelming, and we are confident that the prosecution’s alleged Brady violation (a failure to disclose two possibly exculpatory emails until after trial) made no difference. We therefore affirm the district court’s denial of Morales’s motion for a new trial.”

Affirmed.

12-3558 & 13-1103 U.S. v. Morales

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Norgle, J., Wood, J.

Polls

Should Steven Avery be granted a new evidentiary hearing?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Legal News

See All Legal News

WLJ People

Sea all WLJ People

Opinion Digests