U.S. SUPREME COURT: PROSECUTORS MUST NOT WITHHOLD EVIDENCE FROM THE DEFENSE; DELMA BANKS JR. FINALLY SHOULD RECEIVE FULL AND FAIR HEARING, SAYS NCADP

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NATIONAL COALITION TO ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY
PRESS RELEASE

CONTACT
David Elliot, NCADP Communications Director
202-543-9577, ext. 16
cell phone: 202-607-7036
delliot@ncadp.org
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
www.ncadp.org
920 Pennsylvania Ave. SE
Washington, D.C. 20003
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U.S. SUPREME COURT: PROSECUTORS MUST NOT WITHHOLD EVIDENCE FROM THE DEFENSE; DELMA BANKS JR. FINALLY SHOULD RECEIVE FULL AND FAIR HEARING, SAYS NCADP

Feb. 24, 2004 - The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday declared that Delma Banks Jr. was denied a right to a fair trial when prosecutors withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense. The ruling raises further questions about Texas' death row system and means Banks, who has been on Texas death row for more than two decades, finally could receive a full and fair hearing.

Banks was convicted and sentenced to death in connection with the murder of Richard Whitehead of Texarkana after prosecutors withheld critical exculpatory evidence from the defense and after his lawyer failed to mount a vigorous defense.

NCADP Executive Director Brian Roberts, a former Texas death row appellate attorney, said Banks has never received an opportunity to present in court evidence that prosecutors failed to inform defense counsel that one of its key witnesses was a paid informant and another key witness received a reduced sentence after testifying against Banks.

"Supreme Court Justice Henry Blackmun once wrote that the execution of a person who can show he is innocent comes perilously close to simple murder," Roberts said. "Delma has never had the opportunity to demonstrate that he was innocent, not for a lack of facts but rather for a lack of forum. Simply put, though there have been years of appeals and many courts that shuffled the paperwork, no one has ever granted this man the review that he deserves. Finally, after all these years, Delma must receive his day in an unbiased courtroom."

Roberts added: "So tainted was Delma's trial that former FBI Director and U.S. District Judge William Sessions, a pro-death penalty Republican, said it has broad implications for the nation's criminal justice system because it directly 'implicates the integrity of the death penalty in this country.'"

In writing for the majority, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsburg wrote: "When police or prosecutors conceal significant exculpatory or impeaching material, we hold it is ordinarily incumbent upon the state to set the record straight....A rule declaring 'prosecutor may hide, defendant must seek,' is not tenable in a system constitutionally bound to accord defendants due process."

Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented.

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The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty was founded in 1976 and is the only fully-staffed national organization devoted specifically to abolishing the death penalty. NCADP is comprised of more than 100 local, state, national and international affiliates.
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