Supreme Court rules that men convicted in D.C.’s Catherine Fuller murder case do not deserve a new trial

By Robert Barnes June 22 at 11:24 AM

The Supreme Court ruled 6 to 2 Thursday that the men convicted of the notorious D.C. gang murder of Catherine Fuller do not deserve a new trial because prosecutors withheld some evidence in the case.

Justice Stephen G. Breyer wrote that it was not reasonable to think that the withheld evidence — that a man convicted of similar crimes had been seen in the area — would have made a difference.

“In the fact-specific context of this record, the withheld evidence is too little, too weak, or too distant to undermine the group attack theory,” Breyer said in announcing the decision from the bench.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Sonia Sotomayor joined Breyer. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan dissented, and Justice Neil M. Gorsuch took no part in the case argued before he joined the court.

At oral arguments, the justices dove deeply into the facts of the high-profile murder of Fuller, ...

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