Finding and Using Brady Material

Brady Evidence is one of the most important tools at your disposal of proving yourself innocent (or getting a reduced sentence) after you’ve already been sent to prison.

Introduction to Brady Material

Brady Material is material (or evidence) that is favorable to the defense (your loved one) in some way. In other words, it’s exculpatory, which is evidence tending to show you or your loved one was not guilty or at least evidence that would mitigate the punishment for the crime.

You may be wondering why this evidence is referred to as “Brady Evidence“.

It’s called this because there’s a Brady vs. Maryland case that sent the fact out that there is a constitutional obligation for the state or the government to turn over favorable material to you without request, and it goes not just to the prosecutor but also to the police and any of the state agents acting in your case.

Because of this, if someone found an inconsistent statement, gathered a piece of evidence, or knew some fact which they did not disclose to you which would have been exculpatory or mitigating to your case, then you could be entitled to relief because of that failure to disclose the evidence.

Discovering the Evidence

How do you discover this evidence?

Well, here at our office, our post conviction defense attorneys and staff do it through public information requests, freedom of information requests (FOI).

We obtain the files from the District Attorney’s office and the defense attorney’s file.

Then we do a comparison between the two after the fact to see what there is in the state’s file that we don’t see in the defense file because sometimes things are withheld.

We also go to the state agencies that would’ve been involved whether it is:

• The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS)
• The county Sheriff’s office where the crime occured,
• Police departments,
• CPS (Texas Child Protective Services)
• Whoever it may have been that was involved in the case.

To review, the way to go about this properly is to:

1. Get the defense file,
2. Get the state file,
3. Compare the two,
4. Get the police and/or sheriff’s office file, look at that,
5. And then see what differences you see between the evidence you’ve gotten your hands on.

It is also useful to go back and talk to all of the people involved again. (Prosecutor, defense attorney, detectives, victims, and witnesses)

Yes, you need to get ahold of all of the witnesses involved in the case and the all of the potential victims in the case.

You can see what other statements they may have made because it’s those inconsistent statements and other interviews that may have been previously undisclosed and therefore may be a good source of Brady Material for you in your case.