Professional Memorandum: Summary of Supreme Court Cases Law Essay

Summary of Supreme Court Cases
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SUBJECT: Summary of Supreme Court Cases
Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963)
In Brady v. Maryland, the petitioner, John Brady, together with his accomplice, was charged with first-degree murder and sentenced to death in a Maryland Court. The two were in separate trials and the petitioner’s trial was the first. The following are the main issues involved in the case (Library of Congress, n.d.a):
* The petitioner indicated that he did not do the actual murder but confessed to being a participant in the robbery
* Before the trial, the petitioner’s lawyer had asked the prosecution to provide him with all the accomplice’s statements
* The prosecution provided some of the statements but excluded the one where the accomplice had confessed to committing murder
* The petitioner only became aware of this withheld statement after his trial, conviction, and sentencing. It was also after the Maryland Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction.
* The petitioner moved for a new trial upon the discovery of suppressed evidence by the prosecution and the trial court dismissed the petition
* The petitioner appealed in the Maryland Court of Appeals and the court held that by withholding evidence, the petitioner’s due process of the law had been denied.
* The Court of Appeals remanded a retrial of the case based on the question of punishment rather than guilt because the suppressed evidence would not have changed the offense of murder in the first degree
* In the United States (US) Supreme Court, the question of whether the restriction of the retrial to the question of punishment alone infringed the petitioner’s right
* The United States (US) Supreme Court held, in agreement with Courts of Appeal, that by withholding the confession of the accomplice, the prosecution had violated the petitioner’s due process of the law
* It also held that by restricting the retrial case to the question of punishment, the Court of Appeals did not violate the petitioner’s rights under the 14th Amendment because the admissibility of the suppressed evidence would have been on the question of punishment rather than guilt
Giglio v. United States, 405 U. S. 150 (1972)
In Giglio v. the United States, the petitioner, John Giglio, was sentenced to five years imprisonment after being found guilty of passing forged money orders. However, his defense attorney found new evidence that had been withheld by the prosecution about a promise made to the prosecution’s key witness. The petitioner moved for a new trial upon the discovery of this new evidence. The following are the main issues in the case (Library of Congress, n.d.b):
* During the trial, the petitioner’s attorney asked the witness during cross-examination whet...