United States v. Boyd

Boyd and six co-defendants (defendants) were convicted of federal drug and gang-related crimes largely based on cooperating witness testimony; after trial, evidence emerged that prosecutors knowingly allowed a key witness to give misleading testimony suggesting he had stopped using drugs years earlier when he had actually continued using drugs through trial, and that prosecutors and their staff had bestowed extraordinary undisclosed favors on cooperating witnesses — including facilitating drug use, conjugal visits in federal offices, smuggled contraband, gifts, and one prosecutor even being named a beneficiary in a witness's will. The district court granted a new trial based on this misconduct, and the government sought review.