Full opinion text
OPINION KEASLER, J., delivered the opinion of the Court in which MEYERS, PRICE, JOHNSON, HERVEY, HOLCOMB, and COCHRAN, JJ., joined. Rodney Reed was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Stacey Lee Stites. In this second subsequent application for a writ of habeas corpus, Reed has failed to prove that the State suppressed evidence in violation of Brady v. Maryland. Reed has also failed to meet the requisite, gateway standard of innocence — showing that it is more likely than not that no reasonable juror would have convicted him in light of the new evidence not presented at trial — under Article 11.071, Section 5(a)(2) of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. Relief is therefore denied. I. Facts Stacey Lee Stites’s partially clothed body was discovered on the side of a desolate country road in Bastrop County, Texas on April 23,1996. Stacey and her mother, Carol Stites, moved to Bastrop from Smithville in 1995 after Stacey graduated from high school. After briefly working for a car dealership in Bastrop, Stacey began working at the Bastrop H.E.B., a grocery store, as a cashier and bagger in October 1995. In January 1996, Stacey and her mother moved to the nearby town of Giddings so that Stacey could be with her flaneé, Jimmy Fennell. Fennell, who had completed the police academy at the Capital Area Planning Counsel Organization (CAPCO) in October 1995, was hired as a patrol officer with the Giddings Police Department in December. With a long-term interest in law enforcement, Fennell had previously been employed by the Bastrop County Sheriffs Office as a jailer. Carol described Stacey and Fennell as inseparable since they began dating a few weeks after meeting at the Smithville Jamboree in May 1995. By late December 1995, the two were engaged. Stacey, Carol, and Fennell moved into an apartment complex just outside Gid-dings. Stacey and Fennell shared an apartment on the second floor of the apartment building, and Carol lived in a separate one-bedroom apartment downstairs. With a big church wedding planned for May 11, 1996, Stacey transferred into the produce department at H.E.B. to earn more money. The new assignment required her to report to work at 3:30 a.m. to stock produce for the day. Normally, she would wake up between 2:45 to 2:50 a.m. and take anywhere from five to twenty minutes getting ready to leave for work; she would dress in her H.E.B. uniform, which consisted of blue pants and a red shirt with an H.E.B. insignia on the front. Typically, she would wear a white T-shirt and cax-ry the red shirt with her on the way out the dooi’, along with a plastic cup of juice or water. Although Stacey had access to Carol’s white or gray Ford Tempo, she routinely drove Fennell’s red Chevrolet S-10 extended-cab truck to work. Carol’s car was unreliable and had broken down on the road in the past. When commuting to work, Stacey would take Highway 290 to Highway 21 and then Loop 150/Chestnut Street, over the railroad ti'acks into Bastrop. The drive took approximately twenty-five to thii-ty minutes. When she finished her shift in the early afternoon, Stacey would usually go to Carol’s apartment, take a nap, and then get up and prepare things with Carol for the upcoming wedding. After leaving work on April 22,1996, the day before she died, Stacey arrived at Carol’s apartment early in the afternoon. She ate lunch and took a nap. Fennell came home from work a few hours later, and having boirowed Carol’s Ford Tempo, Fennell returned Carol’s extra set of car keys to Carol by placing them on a shelf in her apartment. Carol designated the extra set as Stacey’s set. The three then briefly talked about their schedules for the following day. Stacey was scheduled to be at woi'k at 3:30 a.m., and Fennell was not scheduled to work. Fennell and Stacey had planned to go to the insurance agent and to pick out flowers for the wedding ceremony after Stacey got off of woi'k. When Fennell suggested driving Stacey to woi’k, Carol offered to drive him to Bas-trop to meet Stacey so that Fennell could sleep in. However, Fennell declined Carol’s offer, stating that he would dx-ive Stacey to work. Fennell then left in his truck to coach a little-league-baseball team with his friend and coworker, Officer David Hall. He returned between 8:00 and 8:30 p.m. Stacey met Fennell outside of Carol’s apartment, and according to Carol, the two then ran upstairs laughing “as hard as they could.” When Fennell and Stacey returned to their apartment, they showered together. Although Stacey was taking birth-control pills, the two did not have sexual intercourse because, at this point in her prescription cycle, the vitamin pills she was taking allowed for a greater possibility of pregnancy. The two also discussed them plans for the next day for a second time. Abandoning them earlier plan, they agreed that Stacey would take Fennell’s truck to work and that Fennell would arrange to have Carol take him to meet Stacey in Bastrop when she got off of work. Stacey then went to sleep at 9 p.m., while Fennell stayed up and watched the news. The next morning, April 23rd, Andrew Cardenas, Stacey’s coworker in the produce department, arrived at the Bastrop H.E.B. around 3:30 a.m. and waited for Stacey in the parking lot. Cardenas would usually wait in his car for Stacey to arrive so that they could “keep an eye on each other, to make sure nobody was around and walk inside the store together....” Cardenas regarded Stacey as a punctual employee, and when she failed to show up for work, he became concerned. Cardenas eventually went into work to start his shift, but he kept an eye out for Stacey. At 5:23 a.m., while on routine patrol, Officer Paul Alexander with the Bastrop Sheriffs Department observed Fennell’s truck parked in the Bastrop High School parking lot. Mindful that the truck had not been parked there during his previous patrol of the area and that there were no other vehicles in the lot, Officer Alexander contacted the dispatcher and requested a stolen-vehicle check. The dispatcher reported that the vehicle was registered to an individual with the last name Fennell. Although Officer Alexander knew Jimmy Fennell, he did not know him well, and it did not enter his mind that the truck belonged to Jimmy Fennell. When Officer Alexander looked inside the cab with his flashlight, he noticed that the driver’s seat was reclined and that there were books and clothing on the seats. Outside the driver’s side door on the ground, Officer Alexander observed a small piece of a broken belt with a buckle. After noting that there was no shattered glass, that the ignition was intact, and that the driver’s side door was locked, Officer Alexander concluded that nothing was out of order and returned to his patrol duties. Still looking out for Stacey to arrive at work, Cardenas finally decided to call Carol between 6:30 and 7:00 a.m. "When Cardenas told Carol that Stacey failed to show up for work, Carol became upset and immediately yelled out for Fennell. Cardenas then went back to work, and Carol called Fennell on the phone, waking him up. Frantic, Carol told Fennell that H.E.B. called and told her that Stacey did not show up for work. Fennell rushed down the stairs, putting on a shirt on the way down. He told Carol to call authorities and tell them that he and Carol were looking for Stacey. Carol had both sets of keys to her car, so Fennell took Stacey’s set and drove to Bastrop in Carol’s Tempo to look for Stacey. He drove to the H.E.B. and then returned to Carol’s apartment. He did not see any sign of Stacey or the truck. Meanwhile, officers with the Bastrop Police Department were looking for Stacey, and David Board, an investigator with the Department, called Carol to ensure her that they were doing everything possible to locate Stacey. At approximately 9:00 a.m., after authorities received the missing-persons report, Ed Selmala, an investigator with the Bas-trop Police Department, was dispatched to the Bastrop High School parking lot. Upon arrival, Investigator Selmala notified other law enforcement officers, including Board, of the truck’s location and requested assistance. While numerous investigators from the Bastrop Police and Sheriffs Departments were photographing the truck and other pieces of evidence, Officer Alexander was called back into work to explain why he ran the license plate on the truck earlier that morning and to write a report. The truck was later taken to a local tow shop and held until it could be transported to Austin so that members of the Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Laboratory (DPS Crime Lab) could process it for evidence. While the truck was at the tow shop in Bastrop, authorities requested Fennell’s presence to identify items found in and outside of the truck. Fennell was specifically instructed not to touch anything and to peer into the cab and identify anything that was not supposed to be in the vehicle. Fennell observed several things in the truck that were “out of the ordinary.” First, one of the tennis shoes that Stacey normally wore to work was on the floorboard of the passenger’s side of the truck. Second, there was a foamy substance resembling saliva on the carpet covering the hump over the truck’s transmission. Third, there were broken pieces of green plastic in the console from the type of cup that Stacey usually took with her in the truck. Fourth, the driver’s seat was laid back at a forty-five-degree angle. Fifth, the driver’s seatbelt was still buckled. And sixth, there was a large smudge on the back window on the passenger’s side. Fennell also identified several items found outside the truck. First, there were carbon copies of checks from his checkbook. And second, regarding the piece of the belt with a buckle attached, Fennell told investigators that it was part of the belt that Stacey normally wore to work. After this, Fennell returned to his apartment complex in Giddings. When the truck was delivered to the DPS garage in Austin, a crime-scene team began to process it for evidence. The team stopped them initial overview of the truck when Stacey’s body was discovered by Kenneth Osborn shortly before 3:00 p.m. on Bluebonnet Drive, located off of FM 1141. Osborn, a real estate appraiser, was early for a 3:00 o’clock appointment and decided to drive on Bluebonnet Drive to pick some flowers for his wife. He spotted Stacey’s body among some thorny brush in a ditch on the side of the road. When Osborn approached Stacey’s body, he realized that she was dead. He got back into his car, stopped at a house nearby, called the police, and then went back to Bluebonnet Road to wait for the police. John Barton, an investigator with the Bastrop County Sheriffs Department, was one of the first law-enforcement officers to arrive at the scene. He covered Stacey’s body with a green blanket to prevent the media, circling above in a helicopter, from taking photographs. He also closed off the crime scene and began to photograph the area and Stacey’s body. Shortly thereafter, Bastrop authorities, joined by Texas Ranger L.T. Wardlow, who became the designated lead investigator assigned to work with both the Bastrop Police and Sheriffs Departments, decided to call in DPS Crime Lab members to process the scene. The DPS crime-scene team arrived in Bastrop from Austin at approximately 5:15 p.m. Karen Blakley, who specialized in DNA and serology, was designated the team leader by her coworker, Wilson Young. Other members of the team, led by Blakley, included a trace analyst, a photographer, a latent-print examiner, and a trainee in serology and DNA. Detailing the condition of Stacey’s body, Blakley noted that Stacey was missing a shoe and that her white sock was clean, indicating that she had not likely walked on an outside surface. An H.E.B. name tag with the name “Stacey” written on it was found in the crook of Stacey’s leg, and a white T-shirt, which Fennell later identified as belonging to him, was strewn over some brush near Stacey’s body. Stacey was clothed in a black bra and a pair of blue pants with a broken zipper. Her visible green underwear was wet in the crotch and bunched around her hips. Viewing this as indicative of a sexual assault, Blak-ley tested for the presence of semen, and the initial test yielded a positive result. Blakley then collected additional swab samples from Stacey’s vagina and breasts. Because rigor mortis had set in, Blakley could not determine if Stacey had been anally sodomized. “She was already very stiff, and in order for me to try to get to the anal area I could possibly cause injury or further damage and make it look like she had suffered something that she didn’t.” According to Blakley, it “looked like a great force had been applied [to Stacey’s neck] ... because it was like an indentation but red, like it had cut into her skin.” Blakley concluded that the injury was caused by a piece of webbed belt that was located near Stacey’s body on the side of the dirt road “[b]ecause it matched the pattern that was on [Stacey’s] neck.” And when the piece of belt with a buckle found near Fennell’s truck at the high school was brought to the scene, Blakley compared the two and concluded that they matched. Another criminalist on the team designated to search for trace evidence concurred with Blakley’s determination, concluding that the pieces matched. Going a step farther, he also concluded that the belt had been torn not cut. Documenting other injuries to Stacey’s body, Blakley observed that there were scratches on her abdomen and arms, a burn from a cigarette on her arm, and shallow wounds on her wrists and back that looked like they were caused by fire-ant bites. Blakley also documented a large amount of mucus that ran from Stacey’s nose, down the side of her face, and into her ham. Terry Sandifer, the latent-fingerprint examiner, collected two Busch beer cans that were located across the road from where Stacey’s body was discovered. When Sandifer processed the cans for fingerprints at the lab, she discovered no suitable fingerprints to analyze. After processing the scene, Blakley returned to the lab that evening around 11:00 p.m. so that she could look at the substance on the vaginal swabs under a microscope. She discovered intact sperm — sperm heads with the tails still attached — that, in her opinion, indicated that the sexual activity was recent. Her conclusion was based on a published study finding that “26 hours is about the outside length of time that tails will remain on a sperm head inside the vaginal tract of a female.” She immediately reported her finding to Ranger Wardlow. Ranger Wardlow viewed the presence of semen as a “smoking gun,” surmising that the evidence of sexual assault gave the perpetrator a motive to kill. Ranger Wardlow theorized that identifying the man who left the semen would lead to the discovery of Stacey’s killer. Dr. Robert Bayardo, the Travis County Medical Examiner, conducted an autopsy on Stacey’s body the following afternoon at 1:50. He estimated that Stacey died on the 23rd of April at 3:00 a.m., give or take a few hours, based on changes that occur in the body after death. Dr. Bayardo noted that Stacey had pre- and post-mor-tem injuries. He differentiated between the two based on the absence of bleeding; once the heart stops beating, there is no more bleeding and no more bruising. The burn, which Blakley believed was caused by a cigarette, occurred after Stacey died, as did several scratches, in Bayardo’s opinion. Although Stacey’s skull showed no outward signs of injury, when Dr. Bayardo looked inside the skull, he documented multiple bruises that “had the appearance of injuries sustained by being struck on the head with the finger knuckles with a closed hand.” Comparing the injury pattern on Stacey’s neck with the pieces of webbed belt collected by authorities, Dr. Bayardo concluded that the belt was the murder weapon and that Stacey died as a result of asphyxiation caused by strangulation. He estimated that asphyxiation takes approximately three to four minutes and that a person becomes unconscious within one to two minutes. Because of evidence indicating sexual assault, Dr. Bayardo took vaginal swabs. Viewing the swabs under a microscope, he observed the presence of sperm with both heads and tails. This, according to Dr. Bayardo, indicated that the sperm had been introduced into Stacey’s vagina “quite recently.” Continuing the sexual-assault exam, Dr. Bayardo took rectal swabs. Viewed under a microscope, he identified several sperm heads without any visible tails, which led him to report the result of the test as negative. Sperm, according Dr. Bayardo, breaks down much faster in the rectum than it does in the vagina because of the presence of other bacteria in the rectum. When conducting a visual exam of Stacey’s rectal area, Dr. Bayardo noticed that her anus was dilated and that there were some superficial lacerations on the posterior margin. In his opinion, this was consistent with penile penetration, even though he did not entirely rule out the possibility that the presence of sperm in the anus was the result of seepage from the vagina. Utilizing his education and experience about determining whether a particular injury occurred before or after death, Dr. Bayardo concluded that Stacey sustained the injury to her anus at or around the time of her death and that the penetration was therefore not consensual. Because Blakley had prior commitments, Young took over the serological duties on the 24th. Young conducted two types of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) DNA testing, DQ-Alpha and D1SS0, on Stacey’s blood, the vaginal swabs taken by Blakley and Dr. Bayardo, and the substance found on the crotch of Stacey’s underwear. Young conducted only one type of PCR DNA testing, DQ-Alpha testing, on the anal swabs taken by Dr. Bayardo because the quantity of sample was limited. Every person receives one DQ-Alpha allele and one D1S80 allele from each parent; therefore, every person possesses two DQ-Alpha alleles and two D1S80 alleles. Stacey’s blood possessed the DQ-Alpha alleles of 1.2 and 4 and the D1S80 allele of 24, which meant that each of her parents contributed a 24 D1S80 allele to her genetic makeup. On the male portion of the vaginal swabs taken by Dr. Bayardo, the results showed DQ-Alpha alleles 1.2, 3, and 4 and D1S80 alleles of 22 and 24. The presence of three DQ-Alpha alleles, according to Young, is a common occurrence when there is carryover of DNA from either of the two donors that cannot be entirely eliminated during the testing process and does not affect the validity of the results. The 22 D1S80 allele was foreign to Stacey. Regarding the vaginal swab taken by Blakley, the male portion showed DQ-Alpha alleles of 1.2 and 3 and D1S80 alleles of 22 and 24. This signified no carryover from Stacey and indicated that the semen donor possessed the DQ-Alpha alleles of 1.2 and 3 and the D1S80 alleles of 22 and 24. Testing on the male portion from the rectal swabs indicated the presence of DQ-Alpha alleles 1.2, 3, and 4. While there was carryover, the 3 DQ-Alpha allele was foreign to Stacey. Testing of the male potion of DNA from the crotch of Stacey’s underwear showed the presence of DQ-Alpha alleles 1.2 and 3 and D1S80 alleles 22 and 24, indicating the absence of any carryover. Finally, testing on the swabs from Stacey’s breasts showed the presence of DQ-Alpha alleles 1.2, 3, and 4 and D1S80 alleles of 22 and 24. The 3 DQ-Alpha allele and the 22 D1S80 allele were foreign to Stacey, even though there was carryover. Given the results, Young concluded that there was a single semen donor. Young also participated in processing the truck on the 25th, accompanied by Sandifer, the latent-print examiner, and Ranger Wardlow. Blakley joined them the next day when she returned to work. In processing the truck and the carbon copies of Fennell’s checks found outside the truck for prints, Sandifer did not discover anything remarkable. Sandifer could find only a few items with suitable prints. When she examined the prints, she was either unable to make a match or identified the prints as belonging to either Stacey or Fennell. Young focused on looking for the presence of blood or semen but discovered none. And although Young collected other items, including a portion of the saliva or mucus substance that Fen-nell previously noticed on the carpet over the transmission hump, he did not discover anything significant that would help in identifying the perpetrator. Blakley, having observed Stacey’s body, noted that the substance on the transmission hump looked similar to the mucus that had flowed out of Stacey’s nose. Young, Ranger Wardlow, and Blakley all took note of the reclined position of the driver’s seat and that the driver’s seatbelt was fastened. Ranger Wardlow specifically noted that the lap portion of the belt looked like someone sat on it because it was in a downward bow. The three then tested whether it was possible to pull a person from the vehicle while the seatbelt was fastened. Putting Blakley, who was similar in height and weight to Stacey, in the driver’s seat with and without the lap belt on, Ranger Wardlow and Young took turns pulling her from the vehicle by either the feet or the shoulders. In each instance, Ranger Wardlow and Young were able to remove Blakley from the truck. Further, when Young, who was six-foot-two, sat in the reclined driver’s seat, he noticed that he had a clear view out of the back window of the truck in the rear-view mirror. When DPS completed processing the truck, it was returned to Fen-nell. Fennell immediately transported it to the dealership and traded it in. Over the course of the next eleven months, authorities focused then- investigation on people that Stacey knew, and with a $50,000 reward offered by H.E.B., numerous leads and information poured in. For instance, a newspaper-delivery person reported that Stacey’s body was not on Bluebonnet Drive when he drove by the site where her body was found at 4:00 a.m. In all, officials interviewed hundreds of people, including former classmates, boyfriends, and coworkers, as well as Stacey’s friends and coworkers at H.E.B. Over twenty-eight male suspects were identified, some immediately and some during the ensuing investigation. Each suspect was asked to consent to give blood, hail', and saliva samples. With the exception of one, Brian Haynes, all of the suspects offered their consent and provided the samples. Although Haynes refused to consent, he was compelled to provide samples after authorities obtained a search warrant. Authorities also requested and obtained samples from Officer Hall. Because of his friendship with Fen-nell, Officer Hall was viewed as a suspect. Upon request, he voluntarily provided samples. Hall, who lived approximately one block away from Fennell’s apartment, had an alibi — that he was home with his wife, Carla Hall, when Stacey disappeared. When investigating Officer Hall, Ranger Wardlow found no evidence refuting Officer Hall’s alibi. The alibi, coupled with DNA testing excluding Officer Hall, led Ranger Wardlow to conclude that Officer Hall had not been involved in Stacey’s death. As the last known person to see Stacey alive, Fennell was deemed a suspect from the outset. Despite this, authorities never made an effort to search Fennell’s apartment. Fennell, however, was vigorously interrogated on several occasions by Ranger Wardlow, who was, at various times, joined by Investigators Selmala, Barton, or Board. Fennell also voluntarily provided authorities with a blood sample, and even though DNA testing excluded him as the donor of the semen, authorities tried to make a case against him anyway. Ruling out the possibility that Fennell used Carol’s Ford Tempo during the commission of the offense because Fennell had to retrieve the keys from Carol on the morning of the 23rd before he went looking for Stacey, Ranger Wardlow investigated alternative methods of transportation that Fennell could have used. Toward that end, Ranger Wardlow examined taxi records and the vehicle mileage on all of the cars belonging to the Giddings Police Department. This investigation revealed nothing, and officials believed that Fennell could not have walked the thirty-five miles from Bastrop to Giddings between 3:00 a.m. and 6:45 a.m. Authorities also canvassed Fennell’s apartment complex, looking for anyone that could shed some light on anything relating to Stacey or Fennell on the morning of the 23rd. No one reported being awake and about that morning. Finding no evidence to support Fennell’s involvement in the crime, authorities eventually eliminated him as a suspect. David Lawhon, Brian Haynes’s brother, emerged as a viable suspect shortly after Stacey was killed when authorities discovered that he murdered a woman named Mary Ann Arldt in Elgin. Arldt was murdered by Lawhon a few weeks after Stacey was killed, and officials learned that La-whon had bragged about killing Stacey. Because the two cases bore some similarities, authorities homed in on Lawhon in investigating Stacey’s case. A few people informed authorities that there had been a relationship between Lawhon and Stacey, but authorities were unable to confirm any connection between the two. Indeed, a mutual friend never had any indication from either Lawhon or Stacey that they knew one another. Like Fennell, Lawhon was excluded as the donor of the semen through DNA analysis and was later eliminated as a suspect. Investigator Selmala also became a suspect in August 1996 after he committed suicide in his home. Ranger Wardlow investigated his death. A note written by Investigator Selmala’s girlfriend was found by his body. The note revealed that he was distraught over his relationship with his girlfriend. Taking into account his knowledge about Investigator Selmala, which included the note and the investigation into Stacey’s death, Ranger Wardlow found no reason to conclude that Investigator Selmala had any involvement in Stacey’s death. Indeed, the investigation into Stacey’s death revealed no connection between Investigator Selmala and Fennell or Investigator Selmala and Officer Hall. The only common thread between Investigator Selmala and the other two was that all three were law-enforcement officers. Nevertheless, Ranger Wardlow directed that a blood sample be drawn from Selma-la during Selmala’s autopsy and submitted to DPS for DNA testing. Ranger Ward-low made this decision anticipating that someone might try to link Investigator Selmala’s suicide to Stacey’s murder. If such an allegation ever arose, Ranger Wardlow would then be able to give an answer — DNA testing cleared Investigator Selmala as a suspect. All of the other potential suspects that were investigated were excluded as a result of DNA testing. Eventually, officials received information that led them to look into Reed, an African-American who was approximately the same height as Young, as a suspect. Throughout their investigation, officials found nothing that indicated that Stacey knew Reed. Reed lived in the City of Bastrop on Martin Luther King Drive near the railroad tracks. Several of Reed’s family members and friends, as well as his girlfriend, lived nearby. Bas-trop High School is also located near the railroad tracks, about sixth-tenths of a mile from Reed’s house. The location of Reed’s home was significant to authorities because Fennell’s truck was found nearby at the Bastrop High School. Authorities had, early on in the investigation, theorized that the location was convenient for the perpetrator. Reed was frequently seen by Bastrop patrol officers walking in the area near his home late at night. When he worked the night shift in 1995 through the early part of 1997, Officer Michael Bowen would see Reed almost every night between 9:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. or 4:00 a.m. When Officer Bowen saw Reed, Reed was usually at Long’s Star Mart, located near Reed’s house on Loop 150/Chestnut Street and Haysel Street. Bowen also saw Reed walking along the railroad tracks on more than one occasion. Officer Steven Spencer reported seeing Reed in the early morning hours walking near Long’s Star Mart and the All Star Grocery, which was located at Loop 150/Chestnut and Pecan Street. Officials contacted DPS to inquire about whether Reed had a DNA sample on file with the state database, which includes compiled DNA from convicted sexual offenders. When they learned that there was a sample, they requested a comparison between Reed’s DNA and the DNA from the vaginal swab taken by Blakley. Michelle Lockhoof, a specialist in DNA and serology with DPS, conducted DQ-Alpha and D1S80 PCR testing on the two samples. Reed’s DQ-Alpha alleles were identified as 1.2 and 3 and his D1S80 alleles were identified as 22 and 24. When compared with the sample taken from Stacey, Reed could not be excluded as the donor of the semen. In Young’s opinion, 99.8% of the Caucasian population, 99.8% of the African-American population, and 99.92% of the Hispanic population would be excluded as the donor of the semen. Investigator Board interviewed Reed after learning that the preliminary DNA results could not exclude him as a suspect. Investigator Board withheld the results of the DNA testing and Mirandized Reed. Reed waived his rights and gave a written statement. In it, he stated, “I don’t know Stacey Stites, never seen her other than what was on the news. The only thing that I do know is what was said on the news is that she was murdered.” Pursuant to a search warrant, blood was drawn from Reed and turned over to the DPS lab. Lockhoff subjected the sample to a more discriminating type of DNA testing, Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP). Once again, Reed could not be excluded as the donor of the semen when four individual sites were tested. Regarding the statistical frequency in which Reed’s RFLP profile would appear in the population, Lockhoff calculated that it would be one in 590 million for the Caucasian population, one in 330 million for the African-American population, and one in 3 billion for the Hispanic population. Combining the results of the PCR and RFLP testing, the frequency in which Reed’s genetic profile would be present in the world’s population is one in 5.5 billion for the Caucasian, African-American, and Hispanic populations. Reed’s father and three brothers were then excluded as possible donors through DQ-Alpha and D1S80 DNA testing. Because the testing conducted by DPS could not exclude Reed, DPS sought the assistance of LabCorp, an independent lab, to conduct additional testing. Meghan Clement, the director for the forensic-identity-testing department, received DNA samples from Stacey and Reed and conducted PCR testing, which included testing on genetic sites of the DNA strand that are distinct from those considered during DQ-Alpha and D1S80 testing. Looking at ten different sites on the male ¿•action of the substance on the vaginal swab taken from Stacey, Clement could not exclude Reed as the contributor of the semen; in fact, the sample matched Reed’s genetic profile. The probability of randomly selecting an unrelated individual with this profile is approximately one in 449,000,000 for the Caucasian population, one in 46,800,000 for the African-American population, and one in greater than 5,500,-000,000 for the Hispanic population. Combining some of the additional PCR testing with the previous DQ-Alpha and D1S80 results, only one person in the world’s population would have this particular genetic profile. Testing on the male portion of the substance from the rectal swab revealed DQ-Alpha alleles of 1.2 and 3 and, therefore, matched Reed’s DQ-Alpha profile. Recalling her prior experience working on sexual-assault cases for ten-and-a-half years, Clement noted that she never found intact sperm more than twenty-four hours after commission of a vaginal-sexual assault and that sperm breaks down faster in the rectal area than in the vaginal vault. Reed was charged with capital murder in May 1997. At trial, to raise reasonable doubt during the guilt phase, Reed mounted a two-prong challenge to the State’s evidence. First, Reed pointed to the possibility that another person, particularly Fennell and Lawhon, had committed the offense. And as a secondary theory, Reed focused on showing that he had a romantic relationship with Stacey and that his semen was therefore present in Stacey’s body because of consensual intercourse. To prove a romantic relationship between Stacey and Reed, Reed’s defense team called Iris Lindley, a longtime friend of Reed’s parents, to testify. In early 1996, Lindley was sitting on the porch of Reed’s house visiting with Reed’s mother. A young woman with brown hair pulled in front of the house in a gray truck, walked up to the porch, and asked if Reed was home. When Reed’s mother told the young woman that Reed was not home, the young woman asked Reed’s mother to tell Reed that “Stephanie” had come by. Clarifying the name, Lindley said that it was either “Stacey or Stephanie.” When Lind-ley was shown a picture of Stacey, she stated that Stacey looked like the young woman who had come by Reed’s house that day. While Lindley first testified that she formulated the impression that Stacey and Reed were dating, she conceded on cross-examination that she had no such knowledge. To establish that Lawhon knew Stacey, Reed’s attorneys called Jose Coronado, who had worked with Lawhon at Walmart and with Stacey in the produce department at the H.E.B., to testify. Coronado stated that he once saw Stacey and La-whon talking in the Walmart parking lot and that later, when he and Stacey worked together at H.E.B., Stacey told him that she and Lawhon had dated and that La-whon was “sort of a player.” On cross-examination, the State asked Coronado whether it would surprise him to know that Lawhon was dating a woman named Christie Macy and that she would frequently meet him in the Walmart parking lot. Coronado stated that he did not know about Macy or that she met Lawhon in the parking lot. Supporting Coronado’s testimony, Cynthia Jones, a friend of Lawhon’s, testified that she and her boyfriend were with La-whon and Stacey at a party in Elgin and then again at Smithville Jamboree in 1995. Jones said that Lawhon introduced Stacey as “his girl” for the first time at the Jamboree. Scott Parnell furthered the defense’s strategy to implicate Lawhon when he testified that Lawhon confessed to killing Stacey. While drinking at a bar one night in 1996, Lawhon told Parnell that he strangled Stacey with either his or her belt and that Stacey had pretty blue eyes before she closed them. On cross-examination, the prosecution questioned Parnell about a signed written statement that Parnell made at the Sheriffs Department in which Parnell stated that Brian Haynes made the confession. Explaining the evident discrepancy, Parnell testified that both La-whon and Haynes had confessed. Additionally, when the prosecution inquired about the motive behind his testimony, Parnell admitted that he knew about the $50,000 reward offered by H.E.B. To rebut the evidence supporting any relationship between Stacey and Lawhon, the State called two of Stacey’s best friends from high school to testify. Cathy Vacek went to the Jamboree with Stacey in 1995 and stated that she would have known if Stacey dated Lawhon and had gone with him to the Jamboree. Sherry Lastovica went to the Jamboree with Stacey on Friday night in 1995 and stated that after Stacey attended the Jamboree for a second time the following day, Stacey told Lastovica that she had met Fennell. Neither woman knew anything about a relationship between Stacey and Lawhon. The State also offered testimony from Lawhon’s wife. She specifically remembered the night that her husband murdered Arldt. On that night, when Lawhon failed to come home, she locked the screen door, which did not have a key, so that she would know when he got home. When he finally returned home, the two then argued about it. She recalled that the argument ensued because it was unusual for him to come home so late. When asked whether anything like that happened on April 23rd, Lawhon’s wife remembered the day because it was her son’s first birthday, and she stated that nothing unusual happened. Turning their attention to Fennell, Reed’s defense team devoted a considerable amount of time highlighting the shortcomings of the investigation into Fennell by officials. Specifically, they were able to call the jury’s attention to the fact that the lion’s share of information provided to officials about Stacey’s whereabouts before she died, Stacey’s routine and habits, and the items in Fennell’s truck was given by Fennell himself. They also emphasized that officials did not search Fennell’s home, thereby precluding the possibility of ever discovering evidence that may have implicated Fennell. Tami Renee Hannath, Stacey’s high-school friend, cast Fennell as controlling and possessive. She testified that when she and Stacey were on the phone, making arrangements for Stacey to come to Smith-ville for a visit, Fennell came home. Stacey then told him about the upcoming plans while Hannath remained on the phone and then the phone was disconnected. Finally, Reed’s defense team presented its own DNA expert, Dr. Elizabeth Ann Johnson from Technical Associates Incorporated. Dr. Johnson’s DQ-Alpha and D1S80 DNA test results on the vaginal swabs taken by Blakley and the fluid found in Stacey’s underwear were consistent with those obtained by DPS. And although Dr. Johnson attempted to test the rectal swab, she determined that there was not enough DNA to conduct accurate testing. Dr. Johnson’s DQ-Alpha testing on the saliva from breast swabs taken by Blakley yielded the same results as the previous testing conducted by DPS. On the swab taken from Stacey’s left breast, testing indicated 1.2, 4.1, and 3 alleles, and on the swab taken from Stacey right breast, testing indicated 1.2, 3, and 4.1 alleles. Dr. Johnson conceded that in all of the sixteen sites tested in this case, Reed could not be excluded as the donor of the semen and saliva found on Stacey’s body. Further, Dr. Johnson did not dispute the statistics that Lockhoff devised as a result of her testing. To quell the prosecution’s theory that Stacey had been anally sodomized before her death, Dr. Johnson was questioned about vaginal drainage. Dr. Johnson testified that vaginal drainage, which allows semen to be deposited in surrounding areas, may occur when a body is moved around after intercourse. She opined that when there has been an ejaculation in the rectal area, there should be a lot of sperm because a full ejaculate contains hundreds of millions of sperm. And regarding the decomposition of sperm, Dr. Johnson stated that she was unaware of any difference in the rate of decomposition of sperm in the vagina versus that in the rectum. In her experience, she obtained better sperm samples from rectal swabs. On cross-examination, Dr. Johnson admitted that a male can deposit a small amount of sperm without ejaculating when there is penetration and that trauma to the anal area should be considered when determining whether there has been penetration. After weighing the evidence, a jury found Reed guilty of capital murder. And following a separate punishment hearing, Reed was sentenced to death. II. Post-trial Background A. Reed’s Direct Appeal Reed appealed, claiming, among other things, that the evidence was factually insufficient to support his conviction for capital murder. We rejected Reed’s sufficiency claim, holding, “Given the strength of the DNA evidence connecting [Reed] to the sexual assault on [Stacey] and the forensic evidence indicating that the person who sexually assaulted [Stacey] was the person who killed her, a reasonable jury could find that [Reed] is guilty of the offense of capital murder.” And concluding that Reed’s other claims were without merit, we affirmed Reed’s conviction and sentence. B. Reed’s First and Second State Applications for a Writ of Habeas Corpus Reed also sought habeas relief under Article 11.071, Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. Regarding Reed’s original application, based on the trial judge’s recommended findings and conclusions and our own review of the record, we denied relief in a written order. While Reed’s original application was pending, Reed filed a supplemental claim for relief, which we later construed as a subsequent application under Section 5, Article 11.071, Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. Relying on Brady v. Maryland, Reed claimed in the subsequent application that the prosecution failed to give his defense attorneys a letter from Young dated May 13, 1998. The letter was addressed to the lead prosecutor, Lisa Tanner, an Assistant Attorney General whom Bastrop District Attorney Charles Penick had called in to prosecute the case. In the letter, Young acknowledged a request for DNA analysis on the beer cans recovered from the scene where Stacey’s body was found and a request for a comparison of the results to samples of Stacey’s DNA as well as samples from other individuals that had been submitted throughout the course of the investigation. Young subjected the samples to DQ-Alpha DNA testing and documented the results. Testing on one of the cans, identified by officials as item number 24, revealed the presence of DQ-Alpha alleles 1.3 and 4. A possible 1.2 DQ-Alpha allele was potentially masked but was not specifically detected. Testing on the other can yielded no DQ-Alpha results. Based on the results, Young concluded that Reed was excluded as a possible source of the DNA. Young, however, could not exclude Stacey if the source of DNA compromised a mixture of DNA but could exclude her as a donor if the DNA was provided by single source. Officer Hall and Investigator Sel-mala could not be excluded as possible sources of the DNA. According to Reed, the State failed to make Young’s letter available to him until the State attached it as an exhibit to its response to the allegations raised in his original habeas application. The trial judge held a live evidentiary hearing on this claim and, after evaluating its merits, recommended that we deny relief. Testimony from the hearing supplied additional insight into the DNA testing conducted on the beer cans. On May 13th, when Young documented the results from the DQ-Alpha DNA testing on the beer cans, the guilt phase of the trial was underway and the defense was in the process of presenting its case-in-chief. On that particular day, the court was in recess because Dr. Johnson was the defense’s next witness and she was not available to testify until the following day. Initially, the prosecution did not request that testing be conducted on the beer cans, having concluded that they were a non-issue. According to Ranger Wardlow, the cans, which had some pine needles on top of them and compressed needles below, appeared to have been there longer than Stacey’s body. Conversely, proceeding under the theory that everything should be tested, Reed’s defense team ordered testing on the cans. As a result, when Dr. Johnson went to the DPS lab and met with Young on April 15th, Young swabbed the lips and sides of the cans for saliva in Dr. Johnson’s presence and split the swabs with Dr. Johnson. Dr. Johnson later used her portion of the swabs to conduct DQ-Alpha and Polymarker testing. On May 5th, Reed’s defense attorneys requested that blood samples from the other suspects, including Officer Hall and Investigator Selmala, that had been collected by DPS, be made available to Dr. Johnson. The trial judge granted this request. Alerted to the defense’s decision to test the beer cans, Tanner requested that Young test the portions of the swabs that he had retained. When Dr. Johnson testified at trial, she did not testify about the results that she obtained from the DNA testing conducted on the beer cans. Answering Reed’s allegation that she failed to disclose Young’s report to his defense team at the evidentiary hearing, Tanner began by testifying that she learned of Young’s test results on May 13th through Missy Wolfe, an investigator with the Attorney General’s Office, who was assigned to work on Reed’s case with Tanner. Because the trial court was in recess that day, Wolfe called Tanner at home and told her about the results. Young faxed the report on the 14th when the court was back in session, and Wolfe received the report and gave it to Tanner. Tanner stated that, upon receipt of the report, it would have been stamped and given to Reed’s defense attorneys. Prior to trial, the prosecution instituted a Bates stamping system; each page of each document subject to disclosure was assigned a sequential number. Four copies of each document were then made. One copy would be placed in the district clerk’s file, one would be retained by the prosecution in its discovery file, and the remaining two would be given to Reed’s defense attorneys. Young’s May 13th letter, which consisted of two pages, was numbered 3,183 and 3,184. Under the hectic conditions of the trial, the standard procedure began to break down and the prosecution dispensed with providing copies of discovery materials to the district clerk. Tanner stated that she believed she gave a copy of Young’s letter to Reed’s defense team because, when she reviewed her file, she found three stamped copies of the letter and the district clerk’s file did not contain a copy. Based on the usual policy and practice of disclosure in this case, Tanner was convinced that the fourth copy had been given to Reed’s defense team. Wolfe testified similarly. However, neither Tanner nor Wolfe had any independent recollection of specifically providing the report to Reed’s attorneys. Tanner also testified that she considered Young’s results to be exculpatory when she first received them. Therefore, on May 13th, she directed Wolfe to have Young forward the DNA samples to Lab-Corp via FedEx for additional, more discriminating D1S80 and Polymarker DNA testing. However, Tanner cancelled the testing the next day when she reviewed Dr. Johnson’s report and notes during the lunch break before Dr. Johnson was set to testify. Dr. Johnson’s DQ-Alpha testing yielded the same results as Young’s. But through Polymarker' testing, Dr. Johnson excluded Stacey, Officer Hall, and Investigator Selmala as contributors. Still firm in her belief that she had given Young’s report to the defense, Tanner stated that the exculpatory value of Young’s report was negated when she learned about Dr. Johnson’s exclusion of Stacey, Officer Hall, and Investigator Selmala. At that point, Tanner believed that the issue with the beer cans “had been put to bed” and directed Wolfe to cancel the additional testing with LabCorp. Calvin Garvie and Lydia Clay-Jackson, Reed’s trial attorneys, testified that they had not seen Young’s May 13th report until Reed’s habeas counsel gave them a copy. Both attorneys also recalled that the prosecution gave each of them their own copies of all discovery materials before and during the trial. Garvie, who took the responsibility of dealing with the DNA evidence in the case, stated that he remembered someone was excluded and was certain that, if Dr. Johnson’s results had included any of the other suspects, he would have had Dr. Johnson testify to that fact. Game further stated that, had he received Young’s report, it could have affected the jury’s verdict because when there is evidence from the State suggesting innocence and showing the presence of other individuals at the scene, it is “huge.” Clay-Jackson agreed, stating it would have helped advance them theory of the case by giving an explanation of how Fen-nell could have traveled to Giddings from Bastrop and back to Giddings. When asked whether he would have used Young’s report, Garvie stated that he would have used it to consult with Dr. Johnson. Garvie further stated that he would hesitate in using the report because of Dr. Johnson’s exclusion. Clay-Jackson expressed a similar sentiment, stating that Young’s report would not have given her a reason to “exhale” during the trial if she would have known that Dr. Johnson’s testing refuted Young’s results. Regarding Officer Hall, Carla Hall testified, verifying her husband’s alibi. She stated that, in the early morning hours on April 23rd, her husband was at home with her. She remembered that night because her two-month-old daughter woke up with a “bloodcurdling scream” at 3:30 a.m. While her husband held them baby, she went to fix a bottle. Her husband then left for work at 5:35 a.m. because he was scheduled to be on duty at 5:45. Officer Hall testified consistently with his wife. And when asked if he had any involvement with Stacey’s death, Officer Hall stated that he did not. Recommending that Reed’s Brady claim be denied, the trial judge adopted the State’s proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law. In doing so, the trial judge entered findings of fact consistent with the testimony given at the hearing and found Tanner, Garvie, Clay-Jackson, and Officer Hall and his wife, Carla, to be credible. The trial judge also adopted the following conclusions of law: • The State did not intentionally suppress the May 13,1998 DPS lab report in violation of Brady v. Maryland. • The State provided the May 13, 1998 DPS lab report to Applicant’s attorneys.' • There remains a legitimate fact issue as to whether Applicant’s trial counsel actually received a copy of the May 13, 1998 DPS lab report during Applicant’s trial. • If the May 13, 1998 DPS lab report was disclosed and used by the defense effectively, it would not have made a difference between conviction and acquittal, since the defense’s own expert has already reached the same conclusion as that reflected in the report. • Because the DNA results reflected in the May 13, 1998 DPS lab report were previously refuted by Applicant’s own expert, they are not material because they do not create a probability sufficient to undermine the confidence in the outcome of Applicant’s trial. Considering Reed’s Brady claim as raised in a subsequent application for a writ of habeas corpus, we held that Reed failed to show that his claim meets any of the exceptions outlined in Article 11.071, Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. As a result, we dismissed Reed’s subsequent application as an abuse of the writ. C. Reed’s Federal Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus Reed then sought federal habeas corpus relief under Title 28, United States Code, Section 2254. Although the magistrate judge permitted discovery and ordered several depositions, the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas determined that several of Reed’s claims were unexhausted because Reed had failed to present them to this Court before pursuing federal habeas corpus relief. As a result, the District Court entered a stay in March 2004 allowing Reed to exhaust his state-court remedies. D. Reed’s Second Subsequent State Application for a Writ of Habeas Corpus In March 2005, Reed filed a second subsequent state application for a writ of ha-beas corpus under Article 11.071, Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. In it, Reed claimed, among other things, that he is actually innocent under Herrera v. Collins and that the State suppressed exculpatory evidence in violation of Brady. Contending that the State violated Brady, Reed maintained that the State suppressed the following evidence: • DNA evidence linking the beer cans found near Stacey’s body to Officer Hall. • Eyewitness information from Martha Barnett that she had seen Stacey and Fennell the morning that Stacey was murdered. • Reports from family members Jennifer and Brenda Prater that Stacey had been seen early in the morning on April 23rd with a man who was not Reed and who had a dark complexion. • Longstanding information that Fennell and other Giddings officers engaged in a pattern of brutality against suspects. Reed also claimed that the State suppressed information from Mary Blackwell, formerly known as Mary Best. Blackwell is a former classmate of Fennell’s at CAPCO, and she states that she overheard a conversation in which Fennell stated that he would strangle his girlfriend with a belt if he ever caught her cheating on him. While this claim was originally filed under seal, it was made a matter of public record at the evidentiary hearing when Blackwell testified in open court. In October 2005, we determined that Reed’s Brady claims concerning Barnett and Blackwell satisfied the requirements of Article 11.071, Section 5(a) and remanded the claims to the trial judge for a live evidentiary hearing and ordered the trial judge to enter findings of fact and conclusions of law. With respect to Reed’s remaining grounds for relief, we held that Reed failed to satisfy Section 5(a) and dismissed those claims as an abuse of the writ. We now turn to the details of Reed’s Brady claims concerning Barnett and Blackwell. 1. Barnett To support his claim concerning the nondisclosure of eyewitness information from Barnett, Reed attached an affidavit from Barnett. On the morning of April 23rd, 1996 at approximately 5:00 to 5:30 AM I was on my way to work. I pulled into the parking lot of the Old Frontier. At that time I saw Stacy [sic] Stites and a man I recognized as Jimmie [sic] Fennell standing in front of a red pickup on the side walk. I got out of my vehicle and approached the soda machine. I got my coke, turned and got into my vehicle. There was a 4 door car leaving the parking lot as I turned in. I presumed it was the newspaper deliveries’ [sic] people because the newspaper rack was full. I recognized Stacy [sic] because I always went thru her line at H.E.B. I worked at a restaurant in front of H.E.B. I found out about 2 weeks later that the man with her that morning in front of the Frontier was Jimmie [sic] Fennell because his picture was run in the Giddings Times and News and that’s when I recognized him. Reed also attached affidavits from Barnett’s attorney, Steven Keng. Keng was formerly the Lee County Attorney, a county adjacent to Bastrop County. Keng stated that Barnett told him about seeing Stacey and Fennell at Old Frontier in Paige, Texas, a town between Giddings and Bastrop, on the morning of April 23rd. Barnett relayed this information to Keng sometime in late 1997 or early 1998 when Keng was representing her in Lee County. Keng felt that the information was important because of newspaper reports stating that Fennell was excluded as a suspect because officials could not explain how he committed the crime. When Keng was at the Bastrop County Courthouse a few weeks later, he approached District Attorney Penick and relayed Barnett’s disclosure without specifically identifying Barnett by name, referring to her only as a client. Keng was under the impression that Reed had not yet been tried and approached District Attorney Penick with the information, knowing that a prosecutor has a duty to explore all of the evidence and to see that justice is done. Keng was surprised by Penick’s reaction to the disclosure. He laughed and told me that he had all of the evidence that he needed, and he did not want to hear anymore about the case. He did not indicate that the case was over, and a conviction secured, (which I would have expected if the case had already been tried), only that he did not need anymore evidence. When Keng returned to his office, he told his wife, who assisted him at the office, of Penick’s response. During 2001 and 2002, Smithville newspapers reported that the Bastrop District Attorney’s Office had engaged in prosecu-torial misconduct in Reed’s case. Believing that the allegations of misconduct were defamatory, Penick filed a civil suit against the papers. When pressed during a deposition taken as part of the civil suit in August 2001, Penick stated that he remembered Keng approaching him at the Bastrop County Law Enforcement Center and stating that he had a client who knew something about Reed’s case. Penick recalled telling Keng that he had all of the information that he needed. Penick believed that Keng was making a joke because Keng never stated anything about having exculpatory evidence. In October 2003, Penick, who was by then retired, elaborated on his conversation with Keng during a deposition ordered by the federal magistrate judge. Penick was certain that the conversation took place after Reed was convicted and sentenced. He asserted that Keng approached him in January or October of 2002 while Keng was at the Law Enforcement Center during one of the arraignments on a murder case involving Amanda Sykes. Penick reached this conclusion when he called up the District Attorney’s Office following the deposition in the civil case and requested that they pull the dates involving Sykes’s case. Penick stated that his response to Keng was likely prompted by the news articles; he was “ill-tempered” at the time and perceived Keng’s statement as a “jab” at him. Penick further claimed that in the twenty years he has known Keng, he has never known when to take him seriously and stated that Keng “didn’t seem to sound serious about this.” In response to Penick’s claim that Keng’s disclosure took place long after Reed’s trial, Keng, in his affidavit, steadfastly maintained that the conversation took place prior to Reed’s trial. Keng’s awareness that Reed had yet to be tried prompted him to believe that the information would be important to the State. Keng reviewed his appointment book to identify the dates that he would have been in the Bastrop County representing clients. His review showed that he had been in Bastrop between March 1998 and April 1998. Keng also recalled that the conversation did not take place during any of the pretrial proceedings held on the Sykes case. Keng was dealing with an assistant district attorney on that case and was informed that Penick was on vacation during at least one of the pretrial settings. Keng claimed that Penick did not participate in the trial of Sykes. 2. Blackwell In support of his Brady claim concerning the State’s failure to disclose Fennell’s statement in which he threatened to strangle Stacey if he ever caught her cheating on him, Reed attached an affidavit from Blackwell. In the affidavit, Blackwell states that she is a licensed Texas peace officer and that she attended a training class at' CAPCO with Fennell in 1995. During the class, Fennell sat behind her with some of his friends. Continuing, Blackwell stated: I also knew who Jimmy’s girlfriend was. One day after training class, I met a woman in the parking lot who asked for Jimmy. I told her he was inside and volunteered to get him. As I went in, Jimmy met me coming out of the building. Jimmy looked at us and said, “What are you telling my girlfriend? Keep away from her.” Earlier that day, Jimmy and others in our class were learning self defense tactics. Jimmy’s friend had broken my hand during one of the exercises. After Jimmy passed me in the parking lot I saw him go up to his girlfriend and could hear him telling her in a commanding voice what to do. The men from Bastrop that were taking the CAPCO class would talk about Jimmy’s girlfriend. They said she was nice, but that Jimmy talked down to her in an abusive way — in a demanding kind of way. Towards the end of the CAPCO course, instructors had passed out photographs from real suicides and murders. Each student was supposed to say whether their group’s photograph depicted a suicide or murder. The class had to break because one of the students had a relative who had committed suicide and that relative’s suicide was depicted in one of the photographs. During the break, I overheard Jimmy talking to this other guy in class. He said, “If I ever find my girlfriend cheating on me,