The Texas House this afternoon (on third reading) passed the same version of SB 1681 (by Hinojosa/Gallego) as did the Senate, so legislation requiring corroboration to secure a conviction based on jailhouse informant testimony will now head to Governor Perry's desk.
Though hardly a cure-all, corroboration of jailhouse snitches was a key recommendation of the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice. Florida recently passed much more comprehensive legislation to rein in abuses related to informants. See a resource page from the Justice Project on the problem of jailhouse snitches.
Charles Kiker here:
ReplyDeleteHallelujah for this one. Hope it makes it past the governor's veto pen. Corroboration for undercovers; corroboration for snitch; maybe someday corroboration for any testimony, a la the Biblical admonition.
I knew you'd like that one, Rev.
ReplyDeleteChuy was great on this, btw, just as he was on the 2001 bill on informants in drug stings. By comparison to that dogfight, this passed surprisingly easily. Looking at what Florida accomplished this year, there's more to be done in this arena.