The legal issues presented in this case will be displayed here.

This section contains the nature of the case and procedural background.

Bracy (D) was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death before then-Judge Thomas J. Maloney for his role in an execution-style triple murder. Maloney was later convicted of taking bribes from defendants in criminal cases. The judge “fixed” other murder cases during and around the time of D's trial. D contends that Maloney, therefore, had an interest in a conviction to deflect suspicion that he was taking bribes in other cases and that this interest violated the fair-trial guarantee of the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause. Maloney was one of many dishonest judges exposed and convicted through “Operation Greylord,” a labyrinthine federal investigation of judicial corruption in Chicago. Maloney was convicted in Federal District Court of conspiracy, racketeering, extortion, and obstructing justice in April 1993. Four months later, D filed this habeas petition claiming, among other things, that he was denied a fair trial because “in order to cover up the fact that [Maloney] accepted bribes from defendants in some cases, [he] was prosecution oriented in other cases.” D sought discovery in support of this claim. Specifically, he requested (1) the sealed transcript of Maloney's trial; (2) reasonable access to the prosecution's materials in Maloney's case; (3) the opportunity to depose persons associated with Maloney; and (4) a chance to search Maloney's rulings for a pattern of pro-prosecution bias. The Court rejected D's fair-trial claim and denied his supplemental motion for discovery. The Court of Appeals affirmed by a divided vote. The court concluded that because D had failed to uncover any evidence of actual bias without discovery, “the probability is slight that a program of depositions aimed at crooks and their accomplices . . . will yield such evidence.” The Supreme Court granted certiorari.

The court's holding and decision will be displayed here.

Legal analysis from Dean's Law Dictionary will be displayed here.