Supreme Court Reverses Conviction Over Prosecutorial Misconduct in Death Penalty Case

Prosecutorial Misconduct - Case Alert

Attention Prosecutors, Judicial Officers, and Private Counsel

By Robert Phillips, Deputy District Attorney (Ret.)

A Prosecutor Allowing the Use of False Testimony and Failing to Provide Relevant Evidence: In the U.S. Supreme Court decision of Napue v. Illinois (1959) 360 U.S. 264, 269, it was held that a conviction obtained through the knowing use of false evidence violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause. To establish a Napue violation, a defendant must show that the prosecution knowingly solicited or allowed false testimony to go uncorrected. If a violation is established, a new trial is warranted, at least where the false testimony could in any reasonable likelihood have affected the jury’s judgment. In such a case, it becomes the prosecution’s burden to establish harmlessness beyond a reasonable doubt. (See United States v. Bagley (1985) 473 U.S. 667, 680, fn. 9; and Chapman v. ....

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