http://www.crimelibrary.com/blog/ar...e-struggle-with-jailhouse-snitches/index.html
"The Graham case highlights the inherent dangers of using jailhouse snitches as key witnesses. Unlike so many other eyewitnesses, snitches have nothing to lose and everything to gain by tailoring – or making up entirely—their story to impress prosecutors. Once a person is convicted and imprisoned, there’s precious little they can do to help convince authorities of their innocence. So instead they can be tempted to buy a sentence reduction by pointing to someone else’s guilt.
At the time of publication,”The Snitch System” found 51 instances of people sent to death row with the help of snitches – defined in the report as ”witnesses with incentives to lie.” Since capital punishment resumed in the 1970s, 45.9% of wrongful convictions could be blamed on snitch testimony – more than false scientific evidence or erroneous eyewitness identification. The report quotes Leslie Vernon White, a career criminal in California who gave false testimony in dozens of cases. White would tell interviewers he lived by slogans such as “Don’t go to the pen, send a friend,” and “If you can’t do the time, drop a dime.”
In 2012, a USA TODAY investigation showed that the prevalence and effectiveness of jailhouse snitching on sentence reduction – in the past five years, roughly 49,000 convicts had their sentences lessened for helping prosecutors – has led to a new jailhouse occupation: criminal information broker."
There's more. Good read
"The Graham case highlights the inherent dangers of using jailhouse snitches as key witnesses. Unlike so many other eyewitnesses, snitches have nothing to lose and everything to gain by tailoring – or making up entirely—their story to impress prosecutors. Once a person is convicted and imprisoned, there’s precious little they can do to help convince authorities of their innocence. So instead they can be tempted to buy a sentence reduction by pointing to someone else’s guilt.
At the time of publication,”The Snitch System” found 51 instances of people sent to death row with the help of snitches – defined in the report as ”witnesses with incentives to lie.” Since capital punishment resumed in the 1970s, 45.9% of wrongful convictions could be blamed on snitch testimony – more than false scientific evidence or erroneous eyewitness identification. The report quotes Leslie Vernon White, a career criminal in California who gave false testimony in dozens of cases. White would tell interviewers he lived by slogans such as “Don’t go to the pen, send a friend,” and “If you can’t do the time, drop a dime.”
In 2012, a USA TODAY investigation showed that the prevalence and effectiveness of jailhouse snitching on sentence reduction – in the past five years, roughly 49,000 convicts had their sentences lessened for helping prosecutors – has led to a new jailhouse occupation: criminal information broker."
There's more. Good read
Last edited:
