Snitching here, there and yon

Grits wanted to point out several compelling items related to confidential informants, including issues related to using juveniles as snitches, for readers who don't happen to follow Prof. Alexandra Natapoff's Snitching blog.

First, the New York Times Magazine ran an item last week titled "A Snitch's Dilemma," also publishing an interview with the reporter who wrote the extensive story. The feature focused on Alex White, an informant, drug dealer and hustler in Atlanta who outed several crooked cops (three went to prison) in order to protect himself after a drug raid on the wrong house resulted in police shooting a 92-year old woman named Kathryn Johnston, after which police planted marijuana in her house. Radley Balko, who followed the case closely when it happened, has a good discussion of new revelations in the article. See additional, recent coverage of the case from the Tallahassee Democrat.

Also, earlier this year the Miami New Times ran a three part feature (here, here, and here) about Bosco Enriquez, a former juvenile gang member whose cooperation with police resulted in his being beaten with baseball bats and later raped while in federal custody before being deported. Opined the reporter, "I have spent the past two months combing through mountains of dusty court files that document Enriquez's case, as well as the personnel file of Serralta, the officer who recruited the boy. The result is an outrage. Local educators and police, as well as federal immigration authorities, failed this kid. Cops both in Miami and across the nation need more oversight when they use children to snitch. The current system stinks."

Commenting on Enriquez's story, Prof. Natapoff wrote, "Juvenile informants often incur terrible risks with little or no protection from the legal system. For an indepth look at the phenomenon, see Andrea Dennis, "Collateral Damage? Juvenile Snitches in America's Wars on Drugs, Crime and Gangs," 46 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 1145 (2009)."

Natapoff also recently pointed out another academic article focused on a watered-down reform law in Florida, dubbed Rachel's law after a murdered informant, arguing that the central provisions eliminated before passage gutted the heart of the much-ballyhooed reform measure. "The Boston College Journal of Law & Social Justice has published this note, Toward Efficiency and Equity in Law Enforcement: 'Rachel's Law' and the Protection of Drug Informants. It focuses on an important provision in Rachel's Law that was eliminated, that would have required police to provide potential informants with counsel." See earlier Grits coverage of the measure.