10-2204 U.S. v. Salem

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Criminal Procedure
Due process; impeachment evidence

The government’s failure to disclose a witness’ involvement in a murder was not prejudicial.

“Salem has not demonstrated a reasonable possibility that the outcome of his trial would have been different if he had been able to impeach Lopez with the Sotelo evidence in addition to the other evidence of bias. To be sure, Lopez’s credibility was crucial to the government’s case. See Salem, 578 F.3d at 688. But Salem has not shown that the Sotelo evidence would be more effective at impugning Lopez’s credibility than the previously available impeachment evidence. Salem raised the inference that Lopez had a strong motive to curry favor with the government and took great pains to paint him as an unreliable, biased witness. The district court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that evidence of additional possible sources of pro-government bias would have been largely cumulative of Salem’s impeachment efforts and therefore was immaterial for the purposes of Brady.”

Affirmed.

10-2204 U.S. v. Salem

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Adelman, J., Tinder, J.

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