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Jailhouse testimony in 7% of wrongful convictions
The numbers
The National Registry of Exonerations 2024 report also found that jailhouse testimony was a factor in 25% of death penalty cases.
State reforms
Illinois holds hearings to decide whether a jailhouse informant is reliable enough before a case goes to trial. Texas keeps a registry in each county of jailhouse informants and the cases they have testified in. California instructs juries to view the testimony of an in-custody informant with caution and close scrutiny.
Pinellas County
In Pinellas County, Florida, Paul Skalnik had testified against or given information about at least 27 men by 1984, and three of them were on death row. That year the St. Petersburg Times ran an article on the county's dramatic rise in death sentences, quoting one lawyer who predicted they would have to build a separate wing on death row for Pinellas County.
How do reliability hearings for informants work?
In a reliability hearing, a judge examines the informant's testimony before trial and decides whether jurors may hear it. The prosecution must show the testimony is reliable enough, and the judge looks at factors such as the informant's criminal record, any benefits he has received or expects, and whether he has testified before. A ruling that the testimony is unreliable keeps it out of the trial entirely.
Why require other evidence to back informants?
An informant's account can be hard to test, because it often rests on a private conversation that only he and the defendant could have heard. Corroboration rules give jurors something independent to check the story against. California, for example, bars a conviction based on an in-custody informant's testimony unless other evidence connects the defendant to the crime, under Penal Code section 1111.5.