What Happens When the Government Lies About You in Court?

Is there a hole in our justice system where corruption is allowed to fester? Yes.

Sixty years ago, John Leo Brady was tried for murder in a Maryland court. Brady never denied helping to plan a robbery with his accomplice, Donald Boblit, but insisted that Boblit had pulled the trigger when the scheme went awry. Brady's lawyer argued that his client should therefore be sentenced to life in prison, not death. The jury disagreed and voted to execute him. It was only after Boblit himself was convicted and sentenced to death that Brady's lawyer learned that the prosecutor had intentionally kept hidden Boblit's admission to the crime.

Ruling on Brady's appeal, the Maryland Court of Appeals agreed that the suppression of exculpatory evidence was a 14th Amendment due-process violation, and remanded the case to the trial court on the question of punishment. In 1963, the Supreme Court affirmed in Brady v. Maryland that exculpatory evidence withheld from the defense by the prosecution violates constitutional protections. Ever since then "Brady violations" have resulted in sanctions against prosecutors and police, as well as overturned criminal convictions.

But what happens when the government withholds exculpatory evidence during the prosecution of a civil lawsuit against an individual or company?