Turner v. United States (15-1503)

argument 15-1503

Turner v. United States

Supreme Court of the United States 1h 0m 5 speakers 8 chapters transcribed 7 days ago official recording ↗

▲ 0

Transcript

jump: chapters · speakers · find in transcript

Transcript

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

What Brady‑violation issues are raised at the start of the argument?

Michael W. Williams 0:00

We'll hear argument first this morning in case fifteen fifteen oh three Turner versus United States and the consolidated case fifteen fifteen oh four Overton versus United States. Mr Williams. Thank you, Mr Chief Justice, and may it please the Court. In Brady versus Maryland, this court established the now familiar principle that the prosecution must disclose to the defence all favourable and material information. This case involves a clear violation of that principle. Here the prosecution suppressed information that a serial assaulter of women had been seen acting suspiciously at the crime scene before police arrived. The prosecution further suppressed that this man's girlfriend was in the alley at the time, yet he did not speak to her and she did not speak to him.

Michael W. Williams 0:46

If this information had been available to petitioners at trial, they would have presented an alternative perpetrator theory that centred on this incredibly violent individual. They would have told the jury that during October nineteen eighty four, in this neighbourhood, This man committed similar assaults against similar victims. They would have then posited to the jury that the same person who had accosted a D C Councilwoman in an alley and attacked her so

Elena Kagan 1:11

that's the same.

Michael W. Williams 1:12

Yes.

Elena Kagan 1:15

the witness, Mr Freeman, indicated that there were two people acting so suspiciously. He raised an objection that those names had not been disclosed. The prosecutor explained his reasons for not disclosing the name. And defence counsel chose to say I'll get them on the I'll call the witness and get the names myself and then he dropped the ball. What also occurred was that these this name was given to him as a po was given to him and all defence counsel as a possibility within the materials that were disclosed. that Mr Macmillan had been on the scene and no follow up was done. How can we say that it was undisclosed. or not made available. in light of those record facts.

Michael W. Williams 2:09

Sure. So let me begin with what the prosecutor said during that colloquy, which is at page uh sixty three of the joint appendix. The prosecutor said that his view was that this was not Brady. So he made the statement that this was not Brady information and that he had adhered to his Brady obligations. This court made clear in Banks versus Dredkey that a rule that the prosecutor may hide and the defense must seek is untenable under Breed. That's essentially what happened here. In so doing, Justice Sotomayor, The prosecutor went further, and he made statements that perhaps not deliberately, in fact, still did mislead the defense counsel about the probative value of this information. Because he said, first, that Mr.

Michael W. Williams 2:49

McMillan had no association with the garage. That's not true, and the all and the information suggests that it wasn't. And then further, he said that Mr. McMillan was only at the scene approximately 90 minutes after the crime occurred. occurred. And of course, the prosecution was the only entity in that colloquy that was aware of information that this crime may have happened only thirty minutes after the crime occurred. The way we view this evidence, Your Honor, is that really a very important thing to do. The alternative perpetrator theory depends on five pieces of suppressed information.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg 3:22

But was the l was the name disclosed during the trial?

Michael W. Williams 3:27

It I don't think it was ever disclosed during the trial, uh, Justice Ginsburg. It was only disclosed in the form of the statement of James Michael Campbell, whose trial was severed and then and then uh he uh he pleaded guilty later. James Michael Campbell gave a statement that the prosecutor in this case is later described as the most far fetched. Um I believe one of the detectives used a more colloquial phrase that I shouldn't repeat at the court to describe the statement. It involved people that nobody else put in the crime scene, which by the way includes Mr McMillan. Nobody else, no witness, put him in the crime scene. And people doing things with golf clubs, nobody else described a golf club. involving a gun, nobody else described a gun.