In the classic case of Brady v. Maryland the Supreme Court found that prosecutors must provide material evidence in their possession or the possession of the law enforcement agency to the defense where that evidence might be helpful. Today we will look at a Seventh Circuit case in which the appellate court refused to order a new trial since the evidence held by the prosecutor and law enforcement agencies was not material.

To establish a Brady violation the defendant must prove:

(1) that the prosecution suppressed evidence; (2) that
the evidence was favorable to the defense; and (3) that the evidence was material to an issue at trial.

James Daniel started an on-line conversation with Amanda_13 about sex. Eventually they agreed to meet in Will Park in Valparaiso, Indiana. Daniel promised to bring a condom. But Amanda_13 was not named Amanda and “she” was not 13. “She” was Sergeant Richard Howard of the Porter County Sheriff’s Department. Instead of having sex in the park Daniel was arrested there. Daniel’s second mistake was to give consent to search his computer. The government’s expert found two more sets of communications involving daisy13_Indiana and blonddt. Both sets of conversations were introduced at trial. But unbeknownst to the prosecutor at trial both daisy13_Indiana and blondtt were law enforcement officers working the same scam as Sergeant Howard. At some point between the end of trial and sentencing the prosecutor found out that daisy13_Indiana was a law enforcement agent and it wasn’t until oral argument that the prosecutor found out that blonddt was also a government agent.

After the prosecutor informed the defense counsel that daisy13_Indiana was a police officer, counsel did not request a new trial or inform the court. (Habeas on incompetence of counsel coming up next?) Without objection from in defendant in the trial court, at least as far as Daisy13_Indiana the appellate court uses a plain error test judge the Brady error.

Under the plain error standard, the alleged Brady violation must be an obvious error that affected Daniel’s substantial rights and created a substantial risk of convicting an innocent person.

The appellate court found that the evidence was not material. First, impeaching the expert would do no good since he was not involved in the investigation. Second, since the conversations with daisy13_Indiana and blonddt occurred after the conversation with amanda_13 they could not be used to show entrapment and finally the evidence was admitted to show Daniel’s state of mind and whether they were peace offices or not was not relevant as long as Daniel thought that they were young girls.