LaCaze v. Warden, LA Correctional Inst. for Women, No. 08-30477 (5th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CaseDefendant was granted a certificate of appealability of her habeas petition where defendant was convicted in state court of second-degree murder of her husband and sentenced to life imprisonment. At issue was whether the State withheld Brady material concerning a promise made to a co-defendant and whether the trial court unconstitutionally denied defendant an impartial jury in light of Ross v. Oklahoma. The court held that this case raised a reasonable probability that disclosure of the agreement between the prosecution and the co-defendant would have produced a different result and the state court's determination to the contrary was an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law. Therefore, based on the court's disposition of defendant's Brady claim, the court did not need to consider the merits of defendant's claim under Ross. Accordingly, the court reversed and remanded with instruction to grant the writ under whatever conditions the district court may set.
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