1) whether the Mississippi Supreme Court may hold that Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963) claims and Brady-related prosecutorial claims are time and successive-writ barred without reaching the merits of these claims to avoid federal review of a constitutional violation; and 2) whether the State's suppression of exculpatory evidence and misleading statements to the trial court and the jury deprived Powers of his right to a fair trial in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Whether the prosecution's suppression of exculpatory DNA evidence and alternative suspect information violated the defendant's due process rights under Brady v. Maryland and deprived him of a fair trial