• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

Snitching

Criminal Informant Law, Policy, and Research

  • Home
  • About
  • Litigation
  • Legislation
  • Families & Youth
  • Blog
  • Resources & Scholarship

Informant Crime

Violent FBI informant infiltrates Denver’s racial justice movement

February 9, 2023 by Alexandra Natapoff

From Trevor Aaronson at the Intercept, this profile of an informant used by the FBI to infiltrate, record, provide weapons to, and incite violence by Black activists in Denver: The Snitch in the Silver Hearse. Michael Windecker — who had prior convictions for sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl and weapons charges — was paid over $20,000 during the summer of 2020 at the height of Denver protests against the killings of George Floyd and Elijah McClain. Among other astounding things, Windecker drove an activist to the personal home of Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser (who was overseeing the prosecution of the police and paramedics who killed McClain) where Windecker affirmatively encouraged the activist to kill Weiser. The activist refused.

The FBI has a long sordid history of using informants to infiltrate and disrupt progressive political groups. See previous posts here. For more history, see Elizabeth Hinton, The Unsettling Message of Judas and the Black Messiah in The Atlantic, and Gary Marx’s classic book, Undercover.

Filed Under: Informant Crime, Political informants, Terrorism

Podcast with Law & Philosophy on the commodification of guilt

January 6, 2023 by Alexandra Natapoff

Listen to me and Max Diamond of the Harvard Law & Philosophy Society discuss how the informant market degrades our principles of guilt and culpability by buying, trading, and otherwise commodifying them.

Filed Under: Book events/media, Incentives & Payments, Informant Crime

Podcast with Adam Conover on Factually!

January 1, 2023 by Alexandra Natapoff

Great, hour-long conversation with Adam Conover about all that is shocking and bizarre about the informant system.

Filed Under: Book events/media, Incentives & Payments, Informant Crime, Innocence, Jailhouse Informants, White Collar

ABC News: “A Necessary Evil: The Cost of Confidential Informants”

October 25, 2022 by Alexandra Natapoff

This extensive investigation by KSAT ABC Channel 12 delves into the use of unreliable drug informants, planted drugs, lack of supervision, and a host of other debacles that led to the wrongful conviction of multiple people in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. You can watch the hour-long special here; for additional videos, interviews and resources, check out their Confidential Informant page.

This kind of large scale drug scandal happens more frequently than you might think. See these previous posts for additional examples in Florida, Tennessee, and Texas.

Filed Under: Drug-related, Incentives & Payments, Informant Crime, Innocence, Police, Reliability

Orange County violated the Constitution with its secret informant program

October 20, 2022 by Alexandra Natapoff

The U.S. Department of Justice has released the results of its six-year investigation into Orange County, California, confirming that the Sheriff’s Department and the Office of the District Attorney routinely violated the Sixth Amendment and the Due Process rights of people in the county jail through law enforcement creation, reward, and use of informants. Story from The Appeal here: DOJ Finds Orange County Sheriff, DA Violated Civil Rights Using Illegal Jailhouse Informants. And on what kinds of enforcement actions might follow, see this from the Orange County Register which documented the scandal for years: Courts likely will be needed to force OC to fix illegal use of jailhouse informants.

The Orange County snitch scandal has provided the public with a rare window into the workings of the informant market. Orange County officials rewarded gang informants with money and other benefits, in exchange for which those informants unconstitutionally gathered information about other defendants. County officials lied for years about the program to defense attorneys and in court. Numerous convictions have been overturned as a result. For more, see these prior posts.

Filed Under: Informant Crime, Innocence, Jailhouse Informants, Secrecy

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 8
  • Go to Next Page »

Copyright © 2023 Alexandra Natapoff · Log in · RSS on follow.it