Partially Informed Juries Convict the Innocent – Supreme Court Case
Today the Supreme Court will hear an appeal by seven of those men, who argue that prosecutors violated their right to due process by withholding evidence that would have cast doubt on the government’s allegations. The case shows why, more than half a century after the Court told prosecutors they have a constitutional duty to share evidence that might help defendants, prosecutors have little incentive to take that duty seriously.
In the 1963 case Brady v. Maryland, the Court held that “suppression by the prosecution of evidence favorable to an accused…violates due process where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment.” The Court later explained that evidence is “material” when there is “any reasonable likelihood that it could have affected the judgment of the jury.”