Incentivized Witnesses: A Threat to Prosecutorial Integrity?

View image | gettyimages.com

On December 18, 2014, Rickey Dale Wyatt became the 325^th person in the United States exonerated through post-conviction DNA testing.  Wyatt had been charged and convicted of aggravated rape stemming from an incident occurring on November 1, 1980.  In 1981, he was sentenced to ninety-nine years in prison.  Wyatt initially secured his release in 2012 through the assistance of the Innocence Project, in cooperation with the Dallas County District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit.  This unit, started in 2006 under then-District Attorney Craig Watkins, was the first of its kind in the United States. Today, the Center for Prosecutorial Integrity credits these such units with “forging a new model of justice,” and the organization’s front page contains links to sixteen units in thirteen states, the most recently created in Pima County, Arizona.  In light of the creation of these units, perhaps it is a good time to examine the role prosecutorial practices play within the overall scheme of prosecutorial integrity.  More particularly, this blog post will focus on the use of informants and incentivized witnesses in the prosecutorial scheme.

Snitches: The Government's Overreliance on Informants in the War on Drugs

In recent decades the United States has entered into multiple unconventional wars where it seems that victory will not be obtained until the enemy is eradicated.  One such war is the war on drugs.  It is unclear what a “win” in the war on drugs would look like, and the ambiguity leads to an ongoing fight, but the fight has become a dog eat dog battle of survival of the fittest.

The war on drugs began in the 1980’s as a response to the public opinion that Democrats were soft on crime.  To avoid this public perception before the 1986 election, Democrats came out strongly against drugs.  They introduced the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 and the Anti-Drug Abuse Acts of 1986 and 1988.  Because both parties were anxious to appear strong on this issue, the legislation was passed quickly and without much scrutiny.