Globe Editorial Board Supports Regulating Unreliable Informant Testimony
When given the chance to receive a valuable incentive — money, assistance with housing, or being released from jail — informants are willing to say anything, including false statements that lead to the arrest, prosecution, and conviction of innocent people. Unreliable informant testimony is a major cause of wrongful convictions, and Massachusetts must do more to prevent these injustices.
A new bill filed by Senator Joseph A. Boncore, Senate Bill 832, would provide much needed regulation around incentivized informant testimony, including:
The creation of a statewide tracking system of cases involving informant testimony, that will allow all Massachusetts prosecutors to be informed about all current and prior incentives given to a particular witness.
The disclosure of an informant’s criminal history, in addition to any special deals, promises, or benefits the prosecution made with the information “now or in the future” in exchange for their testimony.
Requiring a pre-trial reliability hearing so a judge can determine whether the proposed informant testimony is reliable before it can be heard by a jury, just as they do for expert witnesses.
Requiring victim notification when trading leniency in exchange for testimony. When an informant is given leniency in their cases — such as a reduced charge or sentence and/or early release from jail — in exchange for their testimony, victims of the informant’s crimes have no say in the process. This bill would require the informant’s victims to be notified.
We’re grateful to the Boston Globe’s Editorial Board for taking on this important issue in a recent opinion piece and joining us in the call for these basic regulations of informant testimony to help prevent the wrongful conviction of innocent people.
CASE STUDY: Laurance Adams was sentenced to death and spent 30 years wrongfully imprisoned for the 1974 murder of a Boston transit worker. His conviction was based on the false testimony of two informants who claimed that Laurance confessed to them. The Commonwealth had failed to disclose that both informants had their criminal charges dismissed or reduced in exchange for their testimony. Years later, this critical evidence emerged and there was evidence that both informants had lied. Adams was exonerated in 2004 and won a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Boston for $2.1 million and received $325,000 in state compensation.