Douglas Dean Scyphers v. Washington
1) . Does evidence qualify as newly discovered and
material under federal standards when a defendant
discovers evidence post-trial - including
statements from the issuing judge that he did not
sign or authorize a search warrant/ that no
original warrant exists/ and no application was
filed - corroborated by court records/ requiring
invalidation of the warrant/ suppression/ reversal
of convictions/ and void all further proceedings
after the warrant ?
2) . Does a search warrant bearing only a facsimile
signature of a judge/ without evidence of actual
authorization or an original document/ satisfy the ,
Fourth Amendment's requirement for issuance by a
neutral magistarte z particularly where the judge
later disavows it ?
3) . May a defendant reasonably rely on the facial
validity of a search warrant bearing a judge's
facsimile signature/ issued by. a Judicial Officer/ .
without pre-trial investigation into its
authenticity/ where no basis for doubt existed
until post-trial revelations ?
4) . Does the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process
Clause require suppression of evidence and reversal
of convictions where post-trial evidence reveals
that state actors may have fabricated a search
warrant by affixing a judge's facsimile signature
without autorization ?
5). Under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 and this Court's
precedent's, must federal courts grant an
evidentiary hearing on a state prisoner's Fourth
Amendment claim when state courts denied one,
despite credible post-conviction evidence that the
search warrant was invalid and not discoverable
pre-trial ?
Whether evidence of a facially valid search warrant bearing only a judge's facsimile signature, later disavowed by the judge as unauthorized, qualifies as newly discovered and material evidence requiring suppression and reversal under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, and whether federal courts must grant an evidentiary hearing on such Fourth Amendment claims under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 when state courts denied one