278
Opinion of the Court
ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim based, in part, on trial counsel's failure to file a motion under Brady v. Maryland, 373 U. S. 83 (1963), "to have the Commonwealth disclose to the defense all exculpatory evidence known to it—or in its possession." App. 205-206. In answer to that claim, the Commonwealth asserted that such a motion was unnecessary because the prosecutor had maintained an open file policy.16
The Circuit Court dismissed the petition, and the State Supreme Court affirmed. Strickler v. Murray, 249 Va. 120, 452 S. E. 2d 648 (1995).
Federal Habeas Corpus Proceedings
In March 1996, petitioner filed a federal habeas corpus petition in the Eastern District of Virginia. The District Court entered a sealed, ex parte order granting petitioner's counsel the right to examine and to copy all of the police and prosecution files in the case. Record, Doc. No. 20. That order led to petitioner's counsel's first examination of the Stoltzfus materials, described supra, at 273-275.
Based on the discovery of those exhibits, petitioner for the first time raised a direct claim that his conviction was invalid because the prosecution had failed to comply with the rule of Brady v. Maryland. The District Court granted the Commonwealth's motion to dismiss all claims except for petitioner's contention that the Commonwealth violated Brady, that he received ineffective assistance of counsel,17 and that
he was denied due process of law under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. In its order denying the Common-wealth's motion to dismiss, the District Court found that petitioner had "demonstrated cause for his failure to raise this claim earlier [because] [d]efense counsel had no independent access to this material and the Commonwealth repeatedly withheld it throughout Petitioner's state habeas proceeding." App. 287.
16 See n. 14, supra.
17 Petitioner later voluntarily dismissed this claim. App. 384.
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