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Brady disclosure

In the legal system of the United States, a Brady disclosure consists of exculpatory or impeaching information and evidence that is material to the guilt or innocence or to the punishment of a defendant. The term comes from the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case Brady v. Maryland, in which the Supreme Court ruled that suppression by the prosecution of evidence favorable to a defendant who has requested it violates due process.

Following Brady, the prosecutor must disclose evidence or information that would prove the innocence of the defendant or would enable the defense to more effectively impeach the credibility of government witnesses. Evidence that would serve to reduce the defendant's sentence must also be disclosed by the prosecution. In practice, this doctrine has often proved difficult to enforce. Some states have established their own laws to try to strengthen enforcement against prosecutorial misconduct in this area.

The Brady doctrine is a pretrial discovery rule that was established by the United States Supreme Court in Brady v. Maryland (1963). The rule requires that the prosecution must turn over all exculpatory evidence to the defendant in a criminal case. Exculpatory evidence is evidence that might exonerate the defendant. Withholding such information from the defendant is called a Brady violation. This would include the prosecution suppressing evidence that was favorable to the defense, the suppressed evidence being material, and there being a reasonable probability of changing the outcome of the trial.

Examples include the following:

As of 2018, federal appeals courts are split as to whether defendants have the right to receive materially exculpatory evidence before making a plea bargain, which is how the vast majority of convictions are now obtained. The Seventh, Ninth, and Tenth Circuits assert that they do; the First, Second, Fourth, and Fifth Circuits assert that they do not.

State "open file" laws like the Michael Morton Act in Texas allow defendants to see all prosecution evidence at every stage of prosecution, including the plea bargain stage.

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