NEW ORLEANS — The Louisiana Supreme Court said Tuesday that, for now, a suspect in the Madison Brooks rape case cannot explore the dead woman's purported sexual history as he puts on a defense. 

In a unanimous decision, the justices upheld a lower court decision against defendant Desmond Carter last March.

"The fundamental right to present a defense does not require the trial court to admit irrelevant evidence or evidence with such little probative value that it is substantially outweighed by other legitimate considerations," the 1st Circuit Court of Appeal wrote then in a 2-1 decision. 

The 1st Circuit had also noted that the trial judge hadn't yet decided whether to let lawyers explore another potential source of Brooks' injuries. A victim's previous sexual history is generally off-limits in a rape trial, but an exception can be granted to explore other sources of genetic material or injuries. Jurors must be given specific instructions on how to treat the evidence.

Prosecutors say Brooks, 19, left a Tigerland bar with Carter and three other men in January 2023. Arrest documents say the group went to a parking lot, where Carter and Kaivon Washington are accused of raping Brooks in the back seat of Casen Carver's vehicle. Carter was accused of rape though there was no evidence that he had sex with the LSU student.

The men told officers that Brooks requested to go home and they took her to an address in the Pelican Lakes subdivision off Burbank Drive and dropped her off. After they left, Brooks wandered onto Burbank and was struck and killed by a motorist.

The fourth man has not been charged.

Carver and Carter want to argue that Brooks had consensual rough sex with another man the day before she died.