2014 snitch scandal in California's Orange County was far larger than previously revealed
2014 snitch scandal in California's Orange County was far larger than previously revealed
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New numbers released by an attorney with the Orange County Public Defender’s Office show that the illegal use of jailhouse informants unraveled 57 homicide and other felony cases, with convictions overturned, charges dropped and sentences dramatically reduced.
Previous estimates had placed the number of affected cases at about 12 — far less than the results of the new analysis by Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders, partially using data from the district attorney’s office.
“We already knew that this was the largest and longest running informant scandal in U.S. history, but there had never been a complete accounting of the cases with changed outcomes.” Sanders said.
With Sanders first sounding the alarm in 2014, state justices and federal investigators have confirmed that Orange County prosecutors and law enforcement officers systematically violated the constitutional rights of criminal defendants with the illegal use of jailhouse informants.
Authorities assembled a secret cadre of jailhouse snitches — some of them collecting up to $1,500 a case — to coax confessions out of targeted inmates. Many of those inmates had a constitutional right not to be questioned by informants because they had already been charged and retained attorneys.
The new analysis shows that 35 homicide cases and 22 serious felony cases fell apart. Sixteen of the murder cases, carrying a potential term of life in prison, resulted in sentences of 12 years or less. All of the cases unraveled for a variety of reasons.
Some of the informants used threats of violence to persuade their targets to talk, which is not allowed by law. Prosecutors failed to disclose to defense attorneys the use of informants and their histories. Orange County sheriff’s deputies refused to testify in criminal cases about their part in the snitch operation. And, under a growing spotlight from the snitch scandal, prosecutors grew reluctant to put jailhouse informants on the witness stand, irreparably harming some cases. …