No. 25-7001

Ernest Mills v. Louisiana

Lower Court: Louisiana
Docketed: 2026-03-11
Status: Pending
Type: IFP
Response RequestedResponse WaivedIFP
Tags: Brady-material certiorari due-process-clause exculpatory-evidence guilty-plea prosecutorial-disclosure
Latest Conference: N/A
Question Presented (from Petition)

1. Whether U.S.C.A. Const. Amend. 14 requires state prosecutors to disclose material exculpatory evidence to criminal defendants before the entry of a guilty plea, particularly when a defendant has filed a motion for discovery and Brady material before entry of the guilty plea?

2. Whether a Brady claim following a guilty plea is legally cognizable where the suppressed evidence was the cause without which the defendant would not have entered the guilty plea?

3. Whether the Due Process Clause requires disclosure of material exculpatory evidence to a defendant before entry of a guilty plea a question the Supreme Court left open in Ruiz but on which federal circuits have reached divergent outcomes, and which a Louisiana decision applied in a way that forecloses a claim based on a pre-plea discovery violation.

Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires state prosecutors to disclose material exculpatory evidence to criminal defendants before entry of a guilty plea, and whether a Brady claim is cognizable post-plea when suppressed evidence was the cause of the guilty plea

Docket Entries

2026-04-10
Response Requested. (Due May 11, 2026)
2026-04-02
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 4/17/2026.
2026-03-30
Waiver of Louisiana of right to respond submitted.
2026-03-30
Waiver of right of respondent Louisiana to respond filed.
2026-02-23
Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due April 10, 2026)

Attorneys

Ernest Mills
Ernest Mills — Petitioner
Louisiana
Jorge Benjamin AguinagaLouisiana Department of Justice, Respondent