682
Opinion of the Court
showed "[Banks] is a danger to friends and strangers, alike." Id., at 146. Banks's effort to impeach Farr was ineffective, the prosecution further urged, because defense witness "Kelley kn[ew] nothing about the murder," and defense witness Owen "wish[ed] to please his future employers." Id., at 148.
The jury answered yes to the three special issues, and the judge sentenced Banks to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Banks's direct appeal. 643 S. W. 2d, at 135. Banks's first two state postconviction motions raised issues not implicated here; both were denied. Ex parte Banks, No. 13568-01 (Tex. Crim. App. 1984); Ex parte Banks, 769 S. W. 2d 539, 540 (Tex. Crim. App. 1989).
Banks's third state postconviction motion, filed January 13, 1992, presented questions later advanced in federal court and reiterated in the petition now before us. App. 150. Banks alleged "upon information and belief" that "the prosecution knowingly failed to turn over exculpatory evidence as required by [Brady v. Maryland, 373 U. S. 83 (1963)]"; 5 the withheld evidence, Banks asserted, "would have revealed Robert Farr as a police informant and Mr. Banks' arrest as a set-up." App. 180, ¶ 114 (internal quotation marks omitted). In support of this third state-court postconviction plea, Banks attached an unsigned affidavit from his girlfriend, Farr's sister-in-law Demetra Jefferson, which stated that Farr "was well-connected to law enforcement people," and consequently managed to stay out of "trouble" for illegally obtaining prescription drugs. Id., at 195, ¶ 7. Banks alleged as well that during the guilt phase of his trial, the State deliberately withheld information "critical to the jury's assessment of Cook's credibility," including the "generous
5 Brady v. Maryland, 373 U. S. 83, 87 (1963), held that "the suppression by the prosecution of evidence favorable to an accused upon request violates due process where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment, irrespective of the good faith or bad faith of the prosecution."
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