By: Derek Hawkins//November 7, 2017//
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Case Name: Thomas R. Socha v. Reed A. Richardson
Case No.: 16-2540
Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and ROVNER and SYKES, Circuit Judges.
Focus: Brady Violation
Socha would like us to find that the state prosecutor in his case violated the obligation recognized in Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), to disclose potentially exculpatory evidence to him. But even though the prosecutor indeed withheld potentially impeaching evidence from Socha, the state courts concluded that there was no reasonable probability that this evidence would have changed the verdict. Because this conclusion was not so outlandish as to be unreasonable, we must affirm the decision of the district court refusing to issue the writ. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d).
Affirmed