People v. Smith

In this case, we consider whether the prosecution breached a duty to correct the substantially misleading, if not false, testimony of a key witness about his formal and compensated cooperation in the government’s investigation. Given the overall weakness of the evidence against the defendant and the significance of the witness’s testimony, we conclude that there is a reasonable probability that the prosecution’s exploitation of the substantially misleading testimony affected the verdict. See Napue v Illinois, 360 US 264, 271-272; 79 S Ct 1173; 3 L Ed 2d 1217 (1959). We therefore reverse the…