670
Syllabus
dict, concluding in this regard that Banks had not properly pleaded a Brady claim based on the September 1980 Cook interrogation transcript. The District Court adopted the Magistrate Judge's report and rejected Banks's argument that the Cook transcript claim be treated as if raised in the pleadings, under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(b).
The Fifth Circuit reversed to the extent the District Court had granted relief on Banks's Farr Brady claim. The Court of Appeals recognized that, prior to federal habeas proceedings, the prosecution had suppressed Farr's informant status and his part in the Dallas trip. The Fifth Circuit nonetheless concluded that Banks did not act diligently to develop the facts underpinning his Farr Brady claim when he pursued his 1992 state-court postconviction application. That lack of diligence, the Court of Appeals held, rendered the evidence uncovered in the federal habeas proceeding procedurally barred. In any event, the Fifth Circuit ruled, Farr's status as an informant was not "material" for Brady purposes. That was so, in the Fifth Circuit's judgment, because Banks had impeached Farr at trial by bringing out that he had been an unreliable police informant in Arkansas, and because much of Farr's testimony was corroborated by other witnesses, including Banks himself, who had acknowledged his willingness to get a gun for Farr's use in robberies. The Fifth Circuit also denied a certificate of appealability on Banks's Cook Brady claim. In accord with the District Court, the Court of Appeals rejected Banks's assertion that, because his Cook Brady claim had been aired by implied consent, Rule 15(b) required it to be treated as if raised in the pleadings.
Held: The Fifth Circuit erred in dismissing Banks's Farr Brady claim and denying him a certificate of appealability on his Cook Brady claim. When police or prosecutors conceal significant exculpatory or impeaching material in the State's possession, it is ordinarily incumbent on the State to set the record straight. Pp. 689-706. (a) Both of Banks's Brady claims arose under the regime in place prior to the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA). P. 689. (b) Banks's Farr Brady claim, as it trains on his death sentence, is not barred. All three elements of a Brady claim are satisfied as to the suppression of Farr's informant status and its bearing on the reliability of the jury's verdict regarding punishment. Because Banks has also demonstrated cause and prejudice, he is not precluded from gaining federal habeas relief by his failure to produce evidence in anterior state-court proceedings. Pp. 690-703. (1) Pre-AEDPA habeas law required Banks to exhaust available state-court remedies in order to pursue federal-court relief. See, e. g.,
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