282
Opinion of the Court
cused, either because it is exculpatory, or because it is impeaching; that evidence must have been suppressed by the State, either willfully or inadvertently; and prejudice must have ensued.
Two of those components are unquestionably established by the record in this case. The contrast between (a) the terrifying incident that Stoltzfus confidently described in her testimony and (b) her initial perception of that event "as a trivial episode of college kids carrying on" that her daughter did not even notice, suffices to establish the impeaching character of the undisclosed documents.21 Moreover, with respect to at least five of those documents, there is no dispute about the fact that they were known to the Commonwealth but not disclosed to trial counsel. It is the third component—whether petitioner has established the prejudice necessary to satisfy the "materiality" inquiry—that is the most difficult element of the claimed Brady violation in this case.
Because petitioner acknowledges that his Brady claim is procedurally defaulted, we must first decide whether that default is excused by an adequate showing of cause and prejudice. In this case, cause and prejudice parallel two of the three components of the alleged Brady violation itself. The suppression of the Stoltzfus documents constitutes one of the causes for the failure to assert a Brady claim in the state courts, and unless those documents were "material" for Brady purposes, their suppression did not give rise to sufficient prejudice to overcome the procedural default.
III
Respondent expressly disavows any reliance on the fact that petitioner's Brady claim was not raised at trial. Brief
21 We reject respondent's contention that these documents do not fall under Brady because they were "inculpatory." Brief for Respondent 41. Our cases make clear that Brady's disclosure requirements extend to materials that, whatever their other characteristics, may be used to impeach a witness. United States v. Bagley, 473 U. S. 667, 676 (1985).
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