Snitching

Criminal Informant Law, Policy, and Research

Prosecutors

Former police chief and prosecutor on the dangers of snitching in USA Today

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Here is an important op-ed in USA Today from Miriam Krinsky and Ronal Serpas: “Stop letting prosecutors get away with threatening murder.” They chronicle the misuse of informants by law enforcment in Orange County and across the country.  About Orange Country, they write:

“Prosecutors used informants to do what would have been illegal for them to do directly — question individuals awaiting trial without their lawyer present and, even worse, use threats of murder and violence to coerce confessions. . . . These practices fly in the face of the fundamental duty of prosecutors: to seek truth and pursue justice.”

Krinsky is a former federal prosecutor and now the Executive Director of Fair and Just Prosecution.  Serpas is former Chief of Police for New Orleans and now Professor of Criminology at Loyola University.

Snitches snitching on snitches

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I write critically about criminal informants, but it bears remembering how they enabled the FBI to break the mafia.  In June, mob boss “Cadillac Frank” Salemme was convicted of ordering the murder of a witness.  Key witnesses against Salemme included Stephen “Rifleman” Flemmi, infamous killer informant in his own right who avoided the death penalty by testifying against Salemme and others. Salemme himself had been living under federal witness protection for having testified for the government over a decade ago.  As one lawyer commented about the old mafia leadership, “Everybody’s been burned to a crisp here by informants.”

Whether it’s good public policy to cut deals with murderers in order to go after other murderers is a subject of long debate. At least some in Congress didn’t think so–see this report: Everything Secret Degenerates: the FBI’s Use of Murderers as Informants.  It is now a violation of Department of Justice guidelines for the FBI to permit one of its informants to commit a violent crime, but violent criminals get leniency all the time in exchange for cooperation.

Texas passes strong new informant disclosure law

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At the recommendation of the Timothy Cole Commission, Texas has passed strong new legislation requiring the government to collect a range of data on its jailhouse informants, including prior testimony and benefits, and to turn that data over to the defense.  The bill is here.

And here is the New York Times Editorial Board’s glowing review of the new law, Texas Cracks Down on the Market for Jailhouse Snitches, calling it “the most comprehensive effort yet to rein in the dangers of transactional snitching.” The Times also notes, however, that prosecutors are supposed to turn over such evidence anyway and that further reforms are called for, such as reliability hearings and barring informants in capital cases.

Prosecutor in Willingham case tried for ethics violation, and acquitted

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Originally posted May 3:  In a rare display of potential discipline, the prosecutor who misused a jailhouse informant against Cameron Todd Willingham–John Jackson–is on trial for ethics violations.  “Specifically, the state’s lawyers contend that Jackson made a deal with a jailhouse snitch who agreed to testify against Willingham and then hid that deal from Willingham’s defense attorneys — a clear violation of both law and ethics. They say that Jackson took extraordinary measures over the next two decades to conceal his deceitful actions.” Here is the story from The Intercept.

Update May 13: The jury acquitted prosecutor John Jackson.  From The Marshall Project: “By an 11-to-1 vote, a Navarro County jury rejected claims by the State Bar of Texas that Jackson made false statements, concealed evidence favorable to Willingham’s defense and obstructed justice.”