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.