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: Capital Defense Weekly

cert grant

By Karl R. Keys, Esq.

A germane cert grant is noted by the SCOTUS Blog: The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to decide whether a state prison inmate may seek access to DNA evidence for use in pursuing a claim of innocence, by filing a civil rights claim after his trial is over. In the new DNA evidence case, District Attorney?s Office v. Osborne (08-6), an implied question is whether an inmate has a right under the Fourteenth Amendment, after conviction, to seek that type of evidence when the right is based upon the Supreme Court?s 1963 ruling in Brady v. Maryland, requiring prosecutors to turn over evidence that would help the accused?s defense. The Ninth Circuit Court relied upon Brady in ruling that an Alaska inmate may sue under the 19th Century civil rights law, so-called Section 1983, to discover evidence in the government?s possession in advance of filing a free-standing claim of innocence that would rely, at least in part, upon that evidence...continue to full post

Full post as published by Capital Defense Weekly on November 03, 2008 (boomark / email).