Snitching – Criminal Informant Law, Policy, and Research

WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS
Criminal informants are infamously unreliable. Jailhouse snitch testimony often leads to wrongful conviction. Over 45 percent of all innocent people exonerated from death sentences were wrongfully convicted based on the testimony of a lying criminal informant. This makes snitches the leading cause of wrongful conviction in U.S. capital cases.
YOUNG INFORMANTS
Police sometimes use children as young as 14 as informants. These children may be exposed to drugs, violence, and other criminal activities as they work to get information for their handlers. Some have been killed. California, Minnesota, and North Dakota have laws restricting the practice, but most states give police wide discretion to use juvenile informants.
INFORMANT CRIMES
Some informants are serious criminals who receive leniency for their own crimes. The FBI has been known to use murderers as informants. Many jurisdictions permit drug dealers to continue selling drugs in exchange for cooperation. In 2011, the crimes committed by FBI informants alone totaled over 5,600.
VULNERABLE COMMUNITIES PAY THE PRICE
Informants are a staple of drug enforcement. This means that where drug enforcement is heaviest, informant activity is also heaviest. Because drug arrests occur disproportionately in low-income Black neighborhoods, those residents must live with the crime, violence, and distrust that go with criminal informant use.

Reform

Numerous states are rethinking their criminal informant policies. Some have passed laws restricting the use of jailhouse snitch witnesses. Some have created new rules for disclosure and accountability. The law governing criminal informants has changed enormously over the past ten years, and will look very different again in another decade.

The Book

Families and Youth

Many families and young people must grapple with informant issues. Police may pressure college students, or even children as young as 14, into becoming informants. Very few states have laws protecting minors or other vulnerable people from the pressures and consequences of informing.

Home

WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS

YOUNG INFORMANTS

INFORMANT CRIMES

VULNERABLE COMMUNITIES PAY THE PRICE

Reform

The Book

Families and Youth

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