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While it is possible that some or all of the judges on this
panel might have held that the withheld evidence was material
if we were in the state judges’ shoes, we are not writing on a
clean slate in deciding this issue. Because the state court’s
necessary holding that the withheld evidence was not material
is not contrary to, nor an unreasonable application of, Brady,
and because it is not based on an unreasonable determination
of the facts, this court is constrained by AEDPA to not grant
the writ. 86&† G
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WK &LU ³information withheld by the
prosecution is not material unless the information consists of,
or would lead directly to, evidence admissible at trial").
However, the state trial court held, both during trial and in
post-conviction proceedings, that any evidence of the semen
stain in Miller’s underwear was inadmissible pursuant to
Michigan’s rape shield law. See Trial Court Tr. at 614-15;
J.A. I at 568. If the fact of the stain was inadmissible, then
clearly any evidence that would have revolved around the
stain (including that it did not come from Sawyer) was also
inadmissible. The majority discounts this fact by stating that
the trial court was not aware, at the time of its holding, that
the stain had been tested and determined not to be from
Sawyer. See Maj. Op. at 9 n.2. However, this fact is
irrelevant; the trial court refused to permit further testing of
the underwear on the basis that, regardless of the results of
such a test, any introduction of the fact of the semen stain
would violate Michigan’s rape shield law. J.A. I at 564-65,
568.
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