698
Opinion of the Court
of his identity was necessary because he could have "amplif[ied] or contradict[ed] the testimony of government witnesses." Id., at 64.
Here, the State elected to call Farr as a witness. Indeed, he was a key witness at both guilt and punishment phases of Banks's capital trial. Farr's status as a paid informant was unquestionably "relevant"; similarly beyond doubt, disclosure of Farr's status would have been "helpful to [Banks's] defense." Id., at 60-61. Nothing in Roviaro, or any other decision of this Court, suggests that the State can examine an informant at trial, withholding acknowledgment of his informant status in the hope that defendant will not catch on, so will make no disclosure motion.
In summary, Banks's prosecutors represented at trial and in state postconviction proceedings that the State had held nothing back. Moreover, in state postconviction court, the State's pleading denied that Farr was an informant. App. 234; supra, at 683. It was not incumbent on Banks to prove these representations false; rather, Banks was entitled to treat the prosecutor's submissions as truthful. Accordingly, Banks has shown cause for failing to present evidence in state court capable of substantiating his Farr Brady claim.
C
Unless suppressed evidence is "material for Brady purposes, [its] suppression [does] not give rise to sufficient prejudice to overcome [a] procedural default." Strickler, 527 U. S., at 282 (internal quotation marks omitted). Our touch-stone on materiality is Kyles v. Whitley, 514 U. S. 419 (1995). Kyles instructed that the materiality standard for Brady claims is met when "the favorable evidence could reasonably be taken to put the whole case in such a different light as to undermine confidence in the verdict." 514 U. S., at 435. See also id., at 434-435 ("A defendant need not demonstrate that after discounting the inculpatory evidence in light of the undisclosed evidence, there would not have been enough left
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