668
OCTOBER TERM, 2003
Syllabus
certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the fifth circuit
No. 02-8286. Argued December 8, 2003—Decided February 24, 2004
After police found a gun-shot corpse near Texarkana, Texas, Deputy Sheriff Willie Huff learned that the decedent had been seen with petitioner Banks three days earlier. When a paid informant told Deputy Huff that Banks was driving to Dallas to fetch a weapon, Deputy Huff followed Banks to a residence there. On the return trip, police stopped Banks's vehicle, found a handgun, and arrested the car's occupants. Returning to the Dallas residence, Deputy Huff encountered Charles Cook and recovered a second gun, which Cook said Banks had left at the residence several days earlier. On testing, the second gun proved to be the murder weapon. Prior to Banks's trial, the State advised defense counsel that, without necessity of motions, the State would provide Banks with all discovery to which he was entitled. Nevertheless, the State withheld evidence that would have allowed Banks to discredit two essential prosecution witnesses. At the trial's guilt phase, Cook testified, inter alia, that Banks admitted "kill[ing a] white boy." On cross-examination, Cook thrice denied talking to anyone about his testimony. In fact, Deputy Huff and prosecutors intensively coached Cook about his testimony during at least one pretrial session. The prosecution allowed Cook's misstatements to stand uncorrected. After Banks's capital murder conviction, the penalty-phase jury found that Banks would probably commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing threat to society. One of the State's two penalty-phase witnesses, Robert Farr, testified that Banks had retrieved a gun from Dallas in order to commit robberies. According to Farr, Banks had said he would "take care of it" if trouble arose during those crimes. Two defense witnesses impeached Farr, but were, in turn, impeached. Banks testified, among other things, that, although he had traveled to Dallas to obtain a gun, he had no intent to participate in the robberies, which Farr alone planned to commit. In summation, the prosecution suggested that Banks had not traveled to Dallas only to supply Farr with a weapon. Stressing Farr's testimony that Banks said he would "take care" of trouble arising during the robberies, the prosecution urged the jury to find Farr credible. Farr's admission that he used narcotics, the prose-
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