A significant problem that has not yet received sufficient attention: protecting young and vulnerable informants. This story in the Missoulian is about how police handled Colton Peterson, a suicidal 21-year-old who was working for them as a drug informant: “Family believes son’s suicide partly caused by law enforcement’s conscription as an informant.” The story raises some of the same issues that caused Florida to pass “Rachel’s law” after 23-year-old Rachel Hoffman was killed while working as an informant. See these previous posts: “Florida’s ‘Rachel’s Law’ offers some protection for informants” and “Recruiting new informants.” Under Florida’s new law, police must now consider certain minimum factors before recruiting a person as an informant, including the person’s “age and maturity,” and “whether the person has shown any indication of emotional instability.” My deepest condolences to Colton’s parents, Juliena Darling and Frank Peterson.
Motion to Preclude Creation of Snitch Testimony
The Kansas Death Penalty Defense Unit recently filed this motion asking the court to take protective measures to prevent jailhouse snitches from being created in the case of Kansas v. Adam Longoria. Asserting that “Mr. Longoria has no intention of talking to anyone but his attorneys about the facts of this case,” the motion requests that the court “take measures to ensure that no jailhouse snitches or other suspect informants are created in this case to manufacture evidence for the state.” This proactive defense tactic appears to be getting more common (see previous post: Interesting effort to preempt jailhouse snitching).
Thanks to Michael Rich
Many thanks for Michael Rich for sharing his work and insights. Additional guest bloggers coming soon.
The power of labels
There is no shortage of slang terms for informants: “weasels,” “rats,” “stool pigeons,” and, of course, “snitches.” And none imply positive things about those who assist the police. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, to “weasel” means “to escape from or extricate oneself out (of a situation, obligation, etc.), esp. dishonourably.” A “rat” is “a man who is deceitful or disloyal in a romantic relationship,” “a person who deserts his or her party, side, or cause,” “a person who gives information, esp. of an incriminating nature, on another person to the police or other authority, an informer.” And to “snitch” is “to inform upon or on a person” or “to take surreptitiously, purloin.” Yet, despite the negative connotations of these slang terms, they (and particularly “snitch”) are used synonymously with “informant” in journalism and academic debate, where at least the appearance of neutrality is valued. For instance, a search of news articles over the past year finds thousands of uses of the word “snitch.” Many of course are found in direct quotations or a similar context, but some simply refer to informants as snitches, and thus import the negative connotation into a presumably neutral forum. A fair number of law review articles incorporate the word “snitch” in the title. And this blog is called, “Snitching Blog.”
To some extent, of course, the use of slang synonyms is unavoidable as authors and reporters seek to avoid repetition. But I raise the issue because I wonder to what extent the use of a term like “snitch” improperly colors the debate over the proper role and treatment of confidential informants. Some, like Paul Butler, have argued that the term “snitch” refers only to a subset of confidential informants and do not include those civilians who assist the police out of a sense of civic duty. I don’t disagree that were this distinction adhered to in practice, it would be valuable, but the use of the word “snitch” is sufficiently indiscriminate to raise concerns that in academic and journalistic discussion those good citizens are being painted with the same brush as criminals who turn in their accomplices.
Interesting effort to preempt jailhouse snitching
Since everyone in the criminal system knows that high-profile murder suspects are prime targets for jailhouse snitches, why not try to nip it in the bud? That’s what one Arizona public defender tried to do, asking the judge to keep other inmates away from his client Pamela Phillips if those other inmates were also represented by the public defender’s office. Were such inmates to come forward as snitch witnesses, it would create a conflict and the public defender’s office could no longer represent Phillips. Story here: Pre-emptive anti-snitch move fails. The judge denied the motion, but its a good example of proactive lawyering that builds on our growing knowledge of how jailhouse informants operate.