An effort to more tightly regulate the use of jailhouse informants is gaining momentum across the country. New DNA testing technology has exonerated dozens of people wrongly locked up based on informants' lies.
FILE - In this June 8, 2017 file photo, Innocence Project lawyer Vanessa Potkin, left, hugs Alfred Swinton, in Superior Court in Hartford, Conn. Swinton served almost two decades in prison for the 1991 killing of Carla Terry before he was cleared based on new DNA evidence. Several states have moved to toughen regulations on the use of jailhouse informants. Advocates said Swinton's erroneous conviction was based in part on the testimony of lying inmates.
In Connecticut, Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont signed a wide-ranging bill in July that will create the nation’s first statewide system to track the use of jailhouse informants, including any benefits offered in exchange for their testimony. While prosecutors agree there needs to be skepticism about jailhouse informants, they say such witnesses offer crucial, truthful information that helps bring perpetrators to justice in many cases. Some worry new informant laws take witness credibility determinations out of the hands of juries and leave it to judges to decide before cases even go to trial.
Connecticut’s new law also requires judges to hold a pre-trial hearing, if requested by the defense, on whether an informant’s testimony is reliable and admissible.one of the nation’s toughest tests “I lost 25 years of my life because of his testimony,” the 54-year-old Illinois native said. “I didn’t get to see my three children grow up. I did not get to go to my mother’s funeral. I did not get to see my sisters grow up. All these things were stolen from me.”
Wrongful convictions also led Texas lawmakers to toughen the rules on jailhouse informants in 2017. The state’s law requires prosecutors to keep records on the use of jailhouse informants and any deals they get because of their testimony. It also mandates prosecutors release certain information about informants to defense lawyers.
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