Payne v. Commonwealth

In this criminal appeal, we shall determine whether defendant was deprived of a fair trial as the result of the prosecution’s alleged failure to disclose information claimed to be exculpatory.

This appeal arises from the same series of events which generated our recent decision in Dozier v. Commonwealth, 219 Va. 1113, 253 S.E.2d 655 (1979). In fact, the handwritten statement which was the subject of Dozier is involved here.

In a lengthy jury trial held in November of 1977, defendant Marcus Albert Payne was found guilty of rape, sodomy and abduction of a female under sixteen years of age for the…