State of Tennessee v. Tony Thomas and LaRonda Turner (Concur in Part and Dissent in Part)

I agree that Tony Thomas’s murder convictions should be affirmed. The Brady v.
Maryland issue raised by Mr. Thomas is a close question. Before trial, Mr. Thomas
requested the prosecution to provide witnesses’ prior inconsistent statements. The trial
court ordered disclosure, the prosecution failed to disclose the statements in its possession,
and the statements were favorable to Mr. Thomas. In my view, the State’s failure to disclose
the witness’s statements until he testified at trial was nondisclosure, not delayed disclosure.
However, the nondisclosed statements had to be material to Mr. Thomas’s defense for his
Brady claim to prevail. Because the statements were not sufficiently material, his Brady
claim fails.