Brady v. Maryland

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Brady v. Maryland

Argued March 18 – 19, 1963
Decided May 13, 1963


Full case name:	Brady v. State of Maryland

Citations:	373 U.S. 83; 83 S. Ct. 1194; 10 L. Ed. 2d 215; 1963 U.S. LEXIS 1615

Prior history:	Certiorari to the Court of Appeals of Maryland

Holding

Withholding of evidence violates due process "where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment."

Court membership

Chief Justice: Earl Warren
Associate Justices: Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, Tom C. Clark, John Marshall Harlan II, William J. Brennan, Potter Stewart, Byron White, Arthur Joseph Goldberg

Case opinions

Majority by: Douglas
Joined by: Warren, Clark, Brennan, Stewart, Goldberg
Concurrence by: White
Dissent by: Harlan
Joined by: Black

Laws applied

U.S. Const. amend. XIV

Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963)^[1], was a United States Supreme Court case in which the prosecution had withheld from the criminal defendant certain evidence. The defendant challenged his conviction, arguing it had been contrary to the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Maryland prosecuted Brady and a companion, Boblit, for murder. Brady admitted being involved in the murder, but claimed Boblit had done the actual killing. The prosecution had withheld a written statement by Boblit confessing that he had performed the act of killing by himself. The Maryland Court of Appeals had affirmed the conviction and remanded the case for a retrial only of the question of punishment.

The court held that withholding evidence violates due process "where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment"; and the court determined that under Maryland state law the withheld evidence could not have exculpated the defendant but was material to the level of punishment he would be given. Hence the Maryland Court of Appeals' ruling was affirmed.