Whether the Fourth Circuit erred in ruling Caro was procedurally barred from raising a § 2255 claim that the Government's suppression of available exculpatory BOP data on lengths and conditions of confinement at ADX Florence violated Brady

QUESTIONS PRESENTED FOR REVIEW The key sentencing determination for a federal prison murder was whether Carlos Caro would be dangerous in the future if not sentenced to death, a determination this Court has held requires accuracy and reliability. See Simmons v. South Carolina, 512 U.S. 154, 172 (1994). The district court denied Caro’s pretrial request for actual BOP data that would demonstrate median lengths of stays at ADX Florence, Colorado, where dangerous inmates are held before being “stepped down” to less secure institutions. Sentencing was reduced to a battle of dueling experts who provided only anecdotal evidence, a retired warden opining Caro could only be held at ADX Florence for three years, which testimony the Government seized upon in asking the jury to impose a sentence of death. A defense risk assessment expert testified that many ADX Florence inmates have been held in excess of five years and some, much longer. The questions presented: Whether the Fourth Circuit erred in ruling Caro was procedurally barred from raising a § 2255 claim that the Government’s suppression of available exculpatory BOP data on lengths and conditions of confinement at ADX Florence violated Brady, where Caro raised on direct appeal claims that the trial court violated his right to disclosure of the BOP data under Rules 16 and 17 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure but he could only speculate that the BOP data still suppressed by the Government was sufficiently material to violate Brady; and, Whether the Fourth Circuit erred in finding Caro could not meet the favorability and materiality prongs of Brady where mere fragments of data Caro unearthed in unrelated civil litigation and from other non-BOP sources in the § 2255 proceedings, which the Government concedes were favorable to Caro, showed that, at the time of Caro’s trial, 63 inmates at ADX Florence had served longer than five years, 25 served longer than ten years, and one served 27 years without being “stepped down” to a less secure institution. i