Public policy responses to informant abuses

 Two informant related stories recall a raft of snitching coverage on this blog, now mostly more than a decade ago.

First, our pal Pam Colloff has the story of a Texas man turned professional snitch, including four death penalty cases, on the NY Times magazine cover this Sunday. Pam has created a newsletter associated with the 13.5k-word story, sign up to receive followups and updates.

Also, Keri Blakinger tweeted out documents showing that Officer Gerald Goines told Houston PD investigators in February that there was no confidential informant in the Hardin Street case, as he had declared in an affidavit justifying a no-knock warrant. Two homeowners died and four officers, including Goines himself, were injured because of those lies.

Long-time readers may recall that Grits extensively covered informant-related policy issues for several years, and in 2006 offered these top-line reform suggestions:

Corroboration: In the Bible, both Mosaic Law and New Testament writings demand that no one be judged guilty of a crime on the uncorroborated testimony of a single witness. Without going that far (though I'm willing if the Legislature is), it makes real sense to require corroboration for all testimony by witnesses who receive incentives, especially cash or reduced sentences for their own crimes. (After innocent people were framed in drug stings in Tulia and Hearne, the Texas Legislature in 2001 enacted a requirement for corroborating informant testimony in drug cases.) 

Reliability hearings: In civil cases, judges decide in reliability hearings whether expert witnesses with long lists of credentials may testify as experts. New statutes should require similar pretrial reliability hearings to ensure a judge deems an informant credible before a jury hears their testimony. 

Supervisory controls: All conversations between police and informants should be recorded. Alternatively, officers should only interview informants in pairs. Informants who will be used on more than one case should be interviewed by a supervisor, and more detailed statistical and other documentation about informants and their activities should be required. More supervisory check-offs on payments to confidential informants are needed, and payments above a de minimus amount should only be made in the presence of supervisors. These ideas could all be implemented administratively at the department level without changing the law. 

Right to counsel: Informant agreements are essentially informal plea bargains. Informants whose culpability for their own crimes will be reduced or prosecution avoided should routinely be afforded a right to an attorney before entering into a "snitch" agreement, just as though they'd been charged with a crime. These "contracts" are generally one-sided and may even obligate informants to commit crimes in which they wouldn't otherwise engage.

Texas has done more than many states to rein in informant abuses. In 2001, Texas required corroboration for drug informant testimony to secure a conviction. In 2009, the corroboration requirement was extended to jailhouse informants. In 2017, the Legislature required prosecutors to track informant use more closely and to disclose informants' histories to the defense. Other reforms, like then-Sen. Rodney Ellis' SB 260 from 2009, which would have required reliability hearings for incentivized informants, never got off the ground.

As far as this blog goes, once I was no longer employed to work on police accountability, Grits moved on to other topics (e.g., innocence, and later, decarceration). But at one time, Grits wrote quite a lot about informants. See prior, related coverage below the jump:

• Snitching Undermines Justice Institutions
• Don't stop snitching, says Natapoff, but at least document it
• Import of recanted informant testimony never evaluated in capital case
• Texas jailhouse snitch reforms praised
• Harris County prosecutor gave secret deals for false testimony
• Prosecutor to testify over withheld informant deals (lots of good links here)
• Fire! Jailhouse informants and Texas arson cases
• Disputed confession corroborated by jailhouse informants seeking secret deals may have resulted in two false convictions
• Prosecutors withheld evidence in shaky Dallas murder convictions
• Willingham prosecutor allegedly failed to disclose jailhouse snitch deal
• Prostitution/law-enforcement follies
• Snitching shaves time off of thousands of federal sentences
• Woman forced to become drug snitch in aftermath of petty drug stop
• Little fish
• Police informant use leads to tolerating crimes, solving them and testing community loyalties
• Natapoff: Snitching reforms require 'changing the culture of secrecy and deregulation' among law enforcement
• Dallas home invader snitches, walks free, then fingers competitors while starting new crew
• Garland drug cop had informant sign blank payment forms
• Dallas fake drug informant shows how 'cooperation' benefits can promote crime
• Petty cash to informants: Routine technique or inducement to perjury?
• Florida passed compromised snitching reforms
• Hollywood film focuses on convictions based on Hearne informant
• Hinojosa: Corroborate jailhouse informants
• El Paso flooded with drugs for five years while authorities watched
• Reversed and acquitted: 80-year drug sentence overturned based on 'Tulia law'
• Years later, victim of Dallas fake-drug scandal comes home
• Dallas County to settle lawsuit with whistleblower from fake drug case
• Dallas fake-drug informant shows how 'cooperation' benefits can promote crime
• First officer from Dallas fake drug scandal heads to prison
• Conviction upheld for only cop prosecuted in Dallas fake drug scandal
• Dallas fake drug case shows why many distrust informants
• Dallas PD 'snitch' reforms don't do enough
• Dallas PD hasn't learned fake drug lessons
• Truth trickling out in Dallas fake drug case
• What solutions exist for witness intimidation on both sides of criminal cases?
• Petty cash to informants: Routine investigative technique or inducement to perjury?
• Natapoff: Snitching can be "crime producing and corrupting"
• Snitch rules protect lying DEA agent
• Congress should restrict criminal informant use to prevent false convictions, police corruption
• Snitch whose crimes were tolerated by feds will be extradited to Mexico
• DEA snitch data lost
• Florida passes compromised snitching reforms
• 'American Violet' portrays landmark TX drug-task-force scandal
• Federal judge: 'Competent evidence" blacks targeted by Hearne task force
• Drug task force cites Grits in federal court motion
• Federal judge: Everyone liable for Tulia-style screwups
• From Hearne to Ruby Ridge to international spying, snitches too often accuse innocents
• Hinojosa: Corroborate jailhouse informants
• Snitching stories from all over
• Why should snitches' testimony get extra scrutiny?
• NPR focuses on pitfalls of informant use
• Snitches in the news: Informant use at the root of many scandals
• "Home-grown" terrorists sprung up from FBI's snitch garden
• Study: 3% of tricks by sex workers without pimps are 'freebies given to police'
• Snitching dilemmas confronted on the small screen
• What do Cleveland, Dallas, and Hearne, TX have in common?
• "Don't Snitch, Jack"
• What Would Jesus Do about uncorroborated snitch testimony?
• Snitching on Good Friday: Rethinking Judas
• Stop Snitching: God Said So
• No snitching code reinforced throughout culture, not just rappers
• A prison guard's aversion to snitches
• Schneier: Faulty war on terror tactics target 'unique, unorthodox, and unexpected'
• Snitching and the Drug War at TPM Cafe Book Club
• Texas' worst court: Cops can hand out dope to create snitches
• FBI won't assure Congress it doesn't tolerate 'serious violent felonies' by informants
• A snitch in time
• Congress should restrict criminal-informant use to prevent wrongful convictions, police corruption
• Natapoff: Snitching can be crime producing and corrupting
• Sample motion requesting informant reliability hearings
• Operation Trick or Treat turned out to be snitch's trick
• Disdain for snitching runs in both directions
• Tony Soprano's a snitch but it's the fed who sings
• Talking snitches in Atlanta
• If victim buttons are okay how about stop snitching t-shirts?
• Is Grits Pro-Snitch?
• Closing records wrong response to whosarat
• Who's a Rat?
• Snitches contribute to crime, corruption
• Snitching among the clergy
• When you know the whole informant thing has gotten out of hand
• Here a snitch, there a snitch
• Snitching on Good Friday: Rethinking Judas
• It's Good Friday: A time to reflect on snitching
• Snitch reforms in other states cited
• Requiring corroboration for eyewitness testimony might have saved Ruben Cantu
• Dallas fake drug case shows why many distrust informants
• What can happen when you snitch?
• Failed 2005 Texas snitch reform
• Snitch rules protect apparently mendacious DEA agent
• Snitching keeps escort services in business
• A prison guard's aversion to snitches
• DEA snitch data lost
• FBI violates snitch rules
• Federal memo tells judges: Hide informant records
• Feds may seal snitch records
• Feds tolerated bank robber snitch for decades
• From Hearne to Ruby Ridge, snitches too often accuse innocents
• Wichita Falls snitch makes false accusation
• Self-serving snitch at center of John Dillinger capture
• Hip Hop, Snitches and Witnesses
• Anderson Cooper's 60 Minutes snitching segment looks pretty lightweight
• Dallas DA: Snitch and we'll protect you
• Talking snitches in Atlanta
• DAs: Cops can legally tolerate crimes by snitches
• Disclosing snitch rewards only fair