STATE v. NORAH (2020)

Writ application denied. Applicant has previously exhausted his right to state collateral review, and he has not shown any exceptions apply. See State v. Norah, 18-0217 (La. 2/25/19), 264 So.3d 437.

On Supervisory Writ to the Criminal District Court, Parish of Orleans Criminal

Defendant and his co-defendant, Sean Watts, filed an application for post-conviction relief claiming the State violated Brady v. Maryland, based on information contained in an audio recording in the district attorney's file. The defendant and his co-defendant allegedly obtained the material from the district attorney's file in March 2018, after being told that it would cost $218.50 in September 2015. Basic starting prison wages in Louisiana are four cents per hour, with restrictions on how much of the four cents a prisoner may put in his savings account and how long a prisoner must be incarcerated before he is permitted to earn incentive wages. Under these circumstances, even if both applicant and his co-defendant pooled all of their permitted prison wage savings, it would have taken more than two years for them both to save the money to purchase the material they claim is exculpatory from the district attorney's file.

However, the defendants did not include in their appendices any of the underlying pleadings in the trial court such as their Reply to the State's procedural and time-bar objections to their post-conviction application. Therefore there is insufficient information before this court to grant the writ and remand for a hearing on the defendants’ diligence in seeking the new information on which their post-conviction applications are based pursuant to La. C. Cr. P. art. 930.8(A)(1).

Because this matter involves a Brady claim against a district attorney's office with a history of disregarding the State's constitutional obligation to disclose favorable information to the defense, I would allow defendant to supplement his writ application with the referenced pleadings and correspondence and potentially avoid years of injustice.

Johnson, C.J., dissents and assigns reasons.