WASHINGTON, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 Tuesday a Texas death row inmate had the right to appeal because prosecutors withheld evidence.
After a gun-shot corpse was found near Texarkana, Texas, a sheriff's deputy learned Delma Banks Jr. had been seen with the deceased. When a paid informant told the deputy Banks was driving to Dallas to retrieve a weapon, the deputy followed Banks to the home of Charles Cook and then arrested him with the handgun in his vehicle.
A second gun found in Cook's house proved to be the murder weapon.
Cook testified Banks told him he had killed "a white boy," and three times denied talking to anyone about his testimony. In fact, Cook was intensively coached by prosecutors, but those prosecutors failed to contradict Cook's assertion.
The prosecution also failed to tell the judge another witness was the informant.
