Lemons v. Commonwealth

Opinion

BARROW, J.

In this appeal, we examine the futile and costly result of a prosecutor’s refusal to disclose an exculpatory statement to a criminal defendant. Being unable to conclude, to a reasonable degree of probability, that had the exculpatory statement “been disclosed to the defense, the result of the proceeding would have been different,” we must affirm. United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 682 (1985). This conclusion, however, follows five separate judicial reviews of the prosecutor’s refusal to disclose the statement, a refusal which persisted even after the prosecutor implicitly…