Cite as: 540 U. S. 668 (2004)
Opinion of the Court
police connections, connections he then alleged, but failed to prove. Brief for Respondent 15-16; App. to Pet. for Cert. A19; see 1977 Tex. Gen. Laws ch. 789, § 2(d) (as amended) (instructing postconviction court to "designat[e] the issues of fact to be resolved," and giving the court discretion to "order affidavits, depositions, interrogatories, and hearings"). Armed in 1992 only with Demetra Jefferson's declaration that Farr was "well-connected to law enforcement people," App. 195, ¶ 7; see supra, at 682, Banks had little to proffer in support of a request for assistance from the state post-conviction court. We assign no overriding significance to Banks's failure to invoke state-court assistance to which he had no clear entitlement. Cf. Strickler, 527 U. S., at 286 ("Proper respect for state procedures counsels against a requirement that all possible claims be raised in state collateral proceedings, even when no known facts support them.").16
Finally, relying on Roviaro v. United States, 353 U. S. 53 (1957), the State asserts that "disclosure [of an informant's identity] is not automatic," and, "[c]onsequently, it was Banks's duty to move for disclosure of otherwise privileged material." Brief for Respondent 17-18, n. 15. We need not linger over this argument. The issue of evidentiary law in Roviaro was whether (or when) the Government is obliged to reveal the identity of an undercover informer the Government does not call as a trial witness. 353 U. S., at 55-56. The Court there stated that no privilege obtains "[w]here the disclosure of an informer's identity, or of the contents of his communication, is relevant and helpful to the defense of an accused." Id., at 60-61. Accordingly, even though the informer in Roviaro did not testify, we held that disclosure
16 Furthermore, rather than conceding the need for factual development of the Farr Brady claim in state postconviction court, the State asserted that Banks's prosecutorial misconduct claims were meritless and procedurally barred in that tribunal. App. 234, 240. Having taken that position in 1992, the State can hardly fault Banks now for failing earlier to request assistance the State certainly would have opposed.
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