Apanovitch v. Houk, No. 09-4333 (6th Cir. 2011)
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Defendant, convicted of a 1984 rape and murder, was sentenced to death and exhausted state appeals. While a habeas proceeding was pending, the Ohio Supreme Court ordered the City of Cleveland to release certain documents relating to its investigation of the murder. Without addressing whether the new evidence supported a Brady claim and should be included in the record, the district court dismissed the habeas petition in 1993. The Sixth Circuit held that the district court abused its discretion by not expanding the record to include the new evidence and that defendant had established that the prosecution had withheld favorable evidence; the court ordered consideration of newly-available DNA evidence. After considering DNA test results, the district court again dismissed the petition. The Sixth Circuit affirmed. The district court's consideration of the DNA test in analyzing Brady claims was improper, but those claims were properly rejected because the exculpatory evidence that was withheld would have been of little value to the defense.
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