United States v. Juan Navarro, Andres Mugercia and Guillermo Perdomo

Under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963), and United States v. Agurs, 427 U.S. 97, 96 S.Ct. 2392, 49 L.Ed.2d 342 (1976), the defendants were entitled to have the district court examine the INS file of the key government witness because there was a substantial basis for claiming that it might contain material information.

My disagreement with the majority concerns the threshold the defendants must cross before they are entitled to have the court review the information they seek. The majority rejects the Brady claim because the defendants have not yet shown that…