Pitchess v. Davis

Respondent Davis was convicted in 1967 in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County of rape, kidnaping, and oral copulation; he was sentenced to state prison. On direct appeal in the California courts, respondent argued, inter alia, that the failure of the state prosecutor in his case to turn over to him an exculpatory laboratory report, despite his request for all material reports, violated his Fourteenth Amendment right to a fair trial under our decision in Brady v. Maryland, 373 U. S. 83 (1963). The laboratory report stated that scientific tests by police officials failed to reveal the…