Also known as: favorable evidence to accused · exculpatory evidence · Brady material
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Evidence that tends to negate the defendant's guilt or reduce the punishment imposed. Due process may require its disclosure by the prosecution when material to guilt or punishment and may require its admission at trial when trustworthy and critical to a fair defense.
Eduardo Enriquez, held as an enemy combatant, learns of shipping logs discovered after his military commission that place him far from the alleged attack site. He seeks to introduce the logs in a habeas proceeding to contest the factual basis for his indefinite detention. The court must permit the challenge because the logs constitute evidence favorable to the accused that a meaningful substitute process must allow.
Eugene Ellsworth is charged with tampering with rebate applications. Prosecutors possess a forensics report showing that the suspicious logins occurred while Ellsworth was on approved leave and that password sharing was common in the unit. The report is never disclosed before Ellsworth pleads guilty. The plea must be set aside because the report is evidence favorable to the accused that is material to guilt.
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Ethan Evans is prosecuted for staging fraudulent accidents. His co-defendant testifies that Evans initiated the scheme. Evans offers testimony from friends that the co-defendant repeatedly claimed to have masterminded the fraud and recruited Evans. The trial court excludes the statements as hearsay. Due process requires admission because the statements are trustworthy evidence favorable to the accused that is critical to a fair trial.
Ella Emerson is charged with assault after a bar fight. She seeks to introduce evidence that she was involuntarily intoxicated and therefore lacked the required mental state. The trial court applies a state rule barring voluntary intoxication evidence. The exclusion prevents Emerson from presenting evidence favorable to the accused on the element of mens rea.
Edith Eberhardt is charged with possessing drugs found in a car she was driving. The court instructs the jury that it may presume possession from presence in the vehicle. Eberhardt offers evidence that other occupants admitted ownership of the drugs. The presumption instruction risks convicting her despite evidence favorable to the accused that rebuts the inference.
Ewan Eckhart is convicted of murder on the basis of eyewitness testimony. Years later he obtains affidavits from two witnesses who were never interviewed and who place another person at the scene with the weapon. Eckhart seeks habeas relief on the ground that the affidavits constitute evidence favorable to the accused that was never disclosed or considered.
No. The duty exists even without a request when the evidence is material to guilt or punishment. Suppression, whether intentional or inadvertent, violates due process.
A court must admit trustworthy hearsay that is critical to the defense when rigid application of the hearsay rule would deprive the defendant of a fair trial.
No. The obligation applies at trial. A convicted defendant has no freestanding due process right to post-conviction discovery of exculpatory evidence.
No. There is no general constitutional duty to present exculpatory evidence to the grand jury. An indictment may stand unless the failure violates a specific constitutional or procedural requirement.
…S. 607. Cf. Durley v. Mayo , 351 U. S. 277, 285 (dissenting opinion). We now hold that the suppression by the prosecution of evidence favorable to an accused upon request violates due process where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment, irrespective of the good faith or bad faith of the prosecution. The principle of Mooney…