Cite as: 540 U. S. 668 (2004)
Opinion of the Court
tion urged, was privileged. Id., at 23. The trial court sustained the State's objection. Id., at 24. Several weeks later, in a July 7, 1980, letter, the prosecution advised Banks's counsel that "[the State] will, without necessity of motions provide you with all discovery to which you are entitled." Id., at 361, n. 1; App. to Pet. for Cert. A4 (both sources' internal quotation marks omitted).
The guilt phase of Banks's trial spanned two days in September 1980. See Brief for Petitioner 2; App. to Pet. for Cert. C3. Witnesses testified to seeing Banks and White-head together on April 11 in Whitehead's green Mustang, and to hearing gunshots in Pocket Park at 4 a.m. on April 12. Banks v. State, 643 S. W. 2d, at 131. Charles Cook testified that Banks arrived in Dallas in a green Mustang at about 8:15 a.m. on April 12, and stayed with Cook until April 14. App. 42-43, 47-53. Cook gave the following account of Banks's visit. On the morning of his arrival, Banks had blood on his leg and told Cook "he [had] got into it on the highway with a white boy." Id., at 44. That night, Banks confessed to having "kill[ed] the white boy for the hell of it and take[n] his car and come to Dallas." Id., at 48. During their ensuing conversation, Cook first noticed that "[Banks] had a pistol." Id., at 49. Two days later, Banks left Dallas by bus. Id., at 52-53. The next day, Cook abandoned the Mustang in West Dallas and sold Banks's gun to a neighbor. Id., at 54. Cook further testified that, shortly before the police arrived at his residence to question him, Banks had revisited him and requested the gun. Id., at 57.
On cross-examination, Cook three times represented that he had not talked to anyone about his testimony. Id., at 59. In fact, however, Cook had at least one "pretrial practice sessio[n]" at which Huff and prosecutors intensively coached Cook for his appearance on the stand at Banks's trial. Id., at 325, ¶ 10, 381-390; Joint Lodging Material 1-36 (transcript of pretrial preparatory session). The prosecution allowed Cook's misstatements to stand uncorrected. In its guilt-
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