your opinion
Read each paragraph and give me your opinion do you agree do you disagree with those 4 paragraphs one for each part and if you agree or disagree why or why not cj
1.”The Brady Rule, named for Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), requires prosecutors to disclose materially exculpatory evidence in the government’s possession to the defense. “Brady material” or evidence the prosecutor is required to disclose under this rule includes any evidence favorable to the accused– evidence that goes towards negating a defendant’s guilt, that would reduce a defendant’s potential sentence, or evidence going to the credibility of a witness. If the prosecution does not disclose material exculpatory evidence under this rule, and prejudice has ensued, the evidence will be suppressed. The evidence will be suppressed regardless of whether the prosecutor knew the evidence was in his or her possession, or whether or not the prosecutor intentionally or inadvertently withheld the evidence from the defense. The defendant bears the burden of proving that the undisclosed evidence was material, and the defendant must show that there is a reasonable probability that there would be a difference in the outcome of the trial had the evidence been disclosed by the prosecutor.”
2.Analyze the Brady rule in the context of the Court’s rationale for this decision from a criminal justice practitioner standpoint.
In the case of Brady, I agree with the courts ruling due to the nature of the crime; although Brady wasn’t involved in the murder, but he was in the area which the murder took place. From a criminal justice practitioner standpoint; Brady received appropriate sentencing because of his involvement in the robbery. The Supreme Court held that the prosecutions suppression of evidence violated the Due process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the courts also held that according the Maryland state law; the confession would not exonerate Brady, renamed only for reconsidering his punishment was proper. Explain how the Court interpreted and refined the Brady rule in one of its subsequent cases— United States v. Agurs, United States v. Bagley, Kyles v. Whitley, or Strickler v. Greene. In subsequent state habeas corpus proceeding, petitioner advanced an ineffective assistance of counsel claim based, in part on trial counsel’s failure to failure to file a motion under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U. S 83, for disclosure of all exculpatory evidence known to the prosecution or in its possession
Explore how the Court’s interpretation in your selected case, following Brady, impacts the application of the rule.Stickler v. Green-The Commonwealth of Virginia charged petitioner with capital murder and related crimes. Because an open file policy gave petitioner access to all of the evidence in the prosecutor’s files, petitioner’s counsel did not file a pretrial motion for discovery of possible exculpatory evidence. At the trial, Anne Stoltzfus gave detailed eyewitness testimony about the crimes and petitioner’s role as one of the perpetrators. The prosecutor failed to disclose exculpatory materials in the police files, consisting of notes taken by a detective during interviews with Stoltzfus, and letters written by Stoltzfus to the detective, that cast serious doubt on significant portions of her testimony. Although petitioner has demonstrated cause for failing to raise a Brady claim, Virginia did not violate Brady and its progeny by failing to disclose exculpatory evidence to petitioner. pp. 280-296.
3.Every defendant has rights under the American Constitution and The Bill of Rights, I do believe that all trials should require unanimous verdicts and the reason why is the fact that some verdicts can put people away for life taking away their freedom for the rest of their natural life. The reasons these verdicts are so important is because once someone is tried and convicted, the majority of the time its very hard to get the decision overturned. Cases that may involve the death penalty and other very touchy subjects can however cause a jury member the change their minds when voting. Anycase that does not require unanimous decisions can leave doubt in jury members minds and doubt in the case as a whole, if the prosecution could not swade members of a jury to see the case via fact and evidence then the case wasnt very strong to begin with
4. When it comes to criminal trials the jury does not have to reach an unanimous decision for the defendant to be found guilty of the crime. There are some instances where a unanimous decision should be made such as in jury trials that are decided by six jurors instead of twelve. Example of this type of situation is the case of Burch v Louisiana. This case involved the defendant being found guilty in a trial that had only six jurors that had not reached the decision unanimously. The defendant then filed a motion that this violated his sixth amendment rights and it then went in front of the Supreme Court. The court found that a trial involving a six person jury violated the Constitution. Justice Rehnquist stated that this trial sat at the intersection of jury size and animity. Only two other states that used six member juries in trials for petty offenses allowed for verdicts that were not unanimous. This gave the court a guideline to use in the decision Two issues that may arise from juries that do not have unanimous verdicts are one is that this may cause the jury to be hung. This means that the jury can not reach a decision on the own to deliver a verdict either way. A second issue is that without having an unanimous decision in some cases the defendant’s constitutional rights may be violated as decided in the case of Burch v Louisiana. Some implications of no unanimous verdict from a jury is that this could cause the prosecution to have to try their case again which causes the state time and money as well as the citizens who are taxpayers. Secondly this could cause the issue of a hung jury which can then lead to a case being dismissed which in turn may result in justice not being met.
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