Cite as: 540 U. S. 668 (2004)
Opinion of the Court
its absence he received a fair trial, understood as a trial resulting in a verdict worthy of confidence."). On the record before us, one could not plausibly deny the existence of the requisite "reasonable probability of a different result" had the suppressed information been disclosed to the defense. Ibid. (internal quotation marks omitted) (citing Bagley, 473 U. S., at 678); Strickler, 527 U. S., at 290. Accordingly, as to the suppression of Farr's informant status and its bearing on "the reliability of the jury's verdict regarding punishment," App. to Pet. for Cert. C44; supra, at 686, all three elements of a Brady claim are satisfied.
III
Both the District Court and the Court of Appeals denied Banks a certificate of appealability with regard to his Cook Brady claim, which rested on the prosecution's suppression of the September 1980 Cook interrogation transcript. App. 422-423; App. to Pet. for Cert. A52, A78; supra, at 687, 689. See also Joint Lodging Material 1-36. The District Court and the Fifth Circuit concluded that Banks had not properly pleaded this claim because he had not sought leave to amend his petition, but had stated the claim only in other submissions, i. e., in his proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law, and, again, in his objections to the Magistrate Judge's report. App. 422-423, 432-433; App. to Pet. for Cert. A51- A52; supra, at 687, 689. Banks contended, unsuccessfully, that evidence substantiating the Cook Brady claim had been aired before the Magistrate Judge; therefore the claim should have been treated as if raised in the pleadings, as Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(b) instructs. See App. to Pet. for Cert. A51-A52; supra, at 687, n. 8 (setting out text of Rule 15(b)). The Fifth Circuit stated its position on this point somewhat obliquely, but appears to have viewed Rule 15(b) as inapplicable in habeas proceedings; the State now concedes, however, that the question whether Rule 15(b) extends to habeas proceedings is one "jurists of reason would
703
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