Informants
Why would an informant lie?
They may have inside info and powerful reasons to fabricate
What are the traditional safeguards?
Disclosure, cross-examination, jury instructions, corroboration and gate keeping
How do innocent people come to confess?
Accusatorial interrogation, influence strategies, false-confession types and vulnerability
Who counts as informants?
Tipster, accomplice witness, confidential informant, cooperating witness and secondary confession
Where do informants fit the course?
Tunnel vision, alibis, eyewitnesses and forensics.
There are __ of the ____ DNA exonerees who confessed to a crime they did not commit.
41;162
Jailhouse informants testified in ___ of all exonerees in the registry. More than 80% of trials with jailhouse snitches were in ____ _____.
7%, murder exonerations.
Informant testimony is important because ________.
It can sound like inside knowledge
Interviewing vs. accusatorial
Interviewing;
Open questions, alternative hypotheses, information testing, and rapport without presuming guilt.
•PEACE Model (UK).
Accusatorial;
A guilt presumption, confrontation, efforts to overcome denials, and movement toward admission.
•Reid technique (USA).
Why informants testimony creates wrongful convictions
Incentives, hidden deals, detailed stories, motive confusion, and cross-exam limits
The final checklist for evaluating informant testimony
1. Incentive 2. Disclosure 3. Access 4. Sources of details 5. Consistency 6. History 7. Corroboration 8. Framing
White paper reform recommendations
1.Video Record All Suspect Interviews and Interrogations
2.Require Evidence-Based Suspicion to Conduct Interrogation
3.Impose Limits on the Confrontational Approach
4.Adopt Science-Based Investigative Interviewing Practices
5.Protect Youthful and Other Vulnerable Suspect Populations
6.Shield Lay Witnesses and Forensic Examiners From Confessions
7.Abolish Contributory Clauses in Compensation Statutes
What was the main cause of wrongful convictions from 1973-2004
Snitch testimony (46%)
Weak corroboration v. Stronger corroboration
Weak;
Only proves the crime happened.
•Comes from another informant who may have communicated with the first.
•Repeats details that were public or could have circulated in jail.
•Confirms peripheral facts but not defendant involvement.
Stronger;
Independently connects the defendant to the crime.
•Was documented before the informant came forward.
•Cannot plausibly come from media, discovery, or jail talk.
•Supports the specific confession claim, not just the case theory.
What’s the leading contributing factor in exonerations?
Perjury or false accusations