Criminal Procedure – Exculpatory evidence – failure to preserve

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Criminal Procedure
Exculpatory evidence; failure to preserve

A naked assertion of bad faith is insufficient to prevail on a claim that the government failed to preserve allegedly exculpatory evidence.

“Stallworth has no evidence that the government has ever known about the content of the missing recordings, and so his claim is not governed by Brady. For a Youngblood claim, the defendant must show: ‘“(1) bad faith on the part of the government; (2) that the exculpatory value of the evidence was apparent before the evidence was destroyed; and (3) that the evidence was of such a nature that the defendant would be unable to obtain comparable evidence by other reasonably available means.”’ United States v. Stewart, 388 F.3d 1079, 1085 (7th Cir. 2004) (internal citations omitted). We again review for abuse of discretion. United States v. Kimoto, 588 F.3d 464, 493 (7th Cir. 2009).”
“Other than his naked allegations, Stallworth presented no evidence of bad faith on the part of the government. No explanation was given for the missing material, but it is plausible that there is an innocent explanation. For example, the Harvey Police Department may have deleted the recording as a routine part of video record maintenance. Thus, Stallworth has not established the government’s bad faith and his Youngblood claim fails. The district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Stallworth’s motion for a new trial.”

Affirmed.

10-2058 U.S. v. Stallworth

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Grady, J., Wood, J.

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