03-29-2011, 01:56 AM
(03-29-2011, 12:47 AM)Methusala Wrote: Jailhouse Snitch
Testimony
A Policy Review
http://tinyurl.com/6dyl4sj
Introduction .............................................. 1
Recommendations & Solutions........ 2
Grounds for Reform.............................. 3
The Legal Landscape .......................... 6
Benefits & Costs .................................... 7
Profiles of Injustice ................................ 8
Snapshots of Success ........................ 14
Voices of Support ................................ 15
Questions & Answers ........................ 16
A Model Policy...................................... 18
Statistics .................................................. 20
Literature ................................................ 21
THANK YOU
In 1982, a 21-year-old cocktail waitress in Ada named Debra Sue Carter was raped and murdered, and for five years the police could not solve the crime. For reasons that were never clear, they suspected Ron Williamson and his friend Dennis Fritz. The two were finally arrested in 1987 and charged with capital murder.
With no physical evidence, the prosecution’s case was built on junk science and the testimony of jailhouse snitches and convicts. Dennis Fritz was found guilty and given a life sentence. Ron Williamson was sent to death row.
If you believe that in America you are innocent until proven guilty, this book will shock you. If you believe in the death penalty, this book will disturb you. If you believe the criminal justice system is fair, this book will infuriate you.
http://www.jgrisham.com/the-innocent-man/
Informants / Snitches
In more than 15% of cases of wrongful conviction overturned by DNA testing, an informant or jailhouse snitch testified against the defendant. Often, statements from people with incentives to testify – particularly incentives that are not disclosed to the jury – are the central evidence in convicting an innocent person.
People have been wrongfully convicted in cases in which snitches:
Have been paid to testify
Have testified in exchange for their release from prison.
Have testified in multiple distinct cases that they have evidence of guilt, through overhearing a confession or witnessing the crime.
DNA exonerations have shown that snitches lie on the stand. To many, this news isn’t a surprise. Testifying falsely in exchange for an incentive – either money or a sentence reduction – is often the last resort for a desperate inmate. For someone who is not in prison already, but who wants to avoid being charged with a crime, providing snitch testimony may be the only option.
http://www.innocenceproject.org/understa...rmants.php