Ex Parte Willingham

Taft Willingham was convicted of kidnapping in the second degree, in the Circuit Court of Morgan County, and was sentenced to 20 years in the state penitentiary. Willingham appealed, maintaining, among other things, that the State had violated his constitutional rights by withholding exculpatory information required to be disclosed by Brady v. Maryland,373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), and, that as a result, he was entitled to a new trial. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed, holding that Willingham had failed to establish that the new evidence was anything more than…