Carver v. State

Summary

The Supreme Court of Maryland affirmed the denial of Steven Carver’s petition for a writ of actual innocence. It held that materiality must be assessed cumulatively in the context of the entire adversarial proceeding, including admitted evidence, evidence available but unused or excluded, and trial strategy, but concluded that Carver’s evidence did not create a substantial or significant possibility of a different verdict. The court further held that an expert opinion obtained after trial was not newly discovered evidence when defense counsel could have retained an expert at trial, and that the other evidence either was discoverable earlier or did not undermine confidence in the verdict.