Cite as: 540 U. S. 668 (2004)
Opinion of the Court
by the Court of Appeals. Brief for Respondent 15-20; App. to Pet. for Cert. A19, A22-A23; see supra, at 687-688. We conclude that none of these arguments accounts adequately for the State's concealment and misrepresentation regarding Farr's link to Deputy Sheriff Huff. The State first suggests that Banks's failure, during state postconviction proceedings, to "attempt to locate Farr and ascertain his true status," or to "interview the investigating officers, such as Deputy Huff, to ascertain Farr's status," undermines a finding of cause; the Fifth Circuit agreed. App. to Pet. for Cert. A22; Brief for Respondent 18-20. In the State's view, "[t]he question [of cause] revolves around Banks's conduct," particularly his lack of appropriate diligence in pursuing the Farr Brady claim before resorting to federal court. Brief for Respondent 14.15
We rejected a similar argument in Strickler. There, the State contended that examination of a witness' trial testimony, alongside a letter the witness published in a local newspaper, should have alerted the petitioner to the existence of undisclosed interviews of the witness by the police. 527 U. S., at 284, and n. 26. We found this contention insubstantial. In light of the State's open file policy, we noted, "it is especially unlikely that counsel would have suspected that additional impeaching evidence was being withheld." Id., at 285. Our decisions lend no support to the notion that defendants must scavenge for hints of undisclosed Brady material when the prosecution represents that all such material has been disclosed. As we observed in Strickler, defense counsel has no "procedural obligation to assert constitutional error on the basis of mere suspicion that some prosecutorial
15 The Court of Appeals also stated that, because "the State did not respond" to Banks's "Farr-was-an-informant contention" in its answer to the January 1992 state habeas application, Banks should have "further investigate[d]." App. to Pet. for Cert. A22. The Fifth Circuit's error in this regard is apparent. As earlier recounted, see supra, at 683, the State's answer indeed did deny Banks's allegation.
695
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