Category: Case Updates

Napue v. Illinois: a conviction built on testimony the State knows is false must fall. All three informants told the jury they were promised nothing.

Comanche and Kennedy described the same overheard confession. Different date, different weapon, different room. Their trial testimony side by side.

At Vaccara Comanche’s 2002 sentencing the judge said on the record: ‘He was kind of bought and paid for on this.’ The transcript, and what the jury was told.

Comanche admitted on cross that he asked Detective Harris what Harris could ‘do for him.’ Harris, he said, made no promises. R. 1954, 1956.

On May 6, 2001 Tony Hunter told Detective Harris he had never been to 221 Greenwood and offered a lie detector test. The jury never heard the offer. R. 182.

At trial Comanche said Hunter knew he was ‘sitting right beside him.’ His 2001 statement, released after he testified, said a blanket hid him. R. 1971-1972.

Two procedural defects, a missing service and a missing word, helped sink the 2026 application. Both were cured. The pending writ asks whether that was fatal.

The April 2026 Motion to Supplement says Vaccara Comanche was called a two-time felon at Tony Hunter’s trial. His criminal history, it says, shows four.

The 2026 ruling called Mr. Hunter’s fifth application duplicative. The Motion to Reconsider lists what the first four raised, and argues none raised this claim.

In 2005 the Second Circuit said the jury heard the informants’ records and possible favorable treatment in great detail. The 2026 filings allege it heard less.