Jailhouse Witness Testimony
The Problem
Jailhouse witnesses are incarcerated individuals who offer to testify against an accused person and typically expect leniency in their own cases or other benefits for their cooperation. Incentivized to lie, unreliable jailhouse witnesses have played a role in 181 proven wrongful convictions in the United States, according to the National Registry of Exonerations.
The Scope of the Problem
In cases where DNA was the factor of exoneration, 17 percent involved false jailhouse witness testimony. It is often cases where the police have the least amount of evidence that this sort of trading for leniency happens without notification to the victims of these unreliable jailhouse witnesses.
Minnesota has a Solution
In the 2021 legislative session, Minnesota passed key legislation that provides safeguards against unreliable jailhouse witness testimony.
The legislation will protect against false jailhouse witness testimony by:
Tracking Jailhouse Witness Testimony: Each county attorney’s office will annually report a record of testimony of jailhouse witnesses against other suspects or defendants, whether or not that testimony is used at trial. The county attorneys also will report any explicit or implicit benefits that they offered or may offer in the future to the jailhouse witness. In addition, confidential information collected would be accessible only by a county attorney. This will provide prosecutors with better information before putting a potential witness on the stand.
Disclosure of jailhouse witness testimony & deals struck: Prosecutors will be required to disclose specific details about the involvement of the jailhouse witness including details of any deals, their criminal histories (including pending charges), other cases in which they may have testified in exchange for benefits, and whether the witness previously recanted their testimony.
Notification to victims of the jailhouse witnesses’ crimes will be required if the jailhouse witness receives or might receive leniency or other benefits in exchange for testimony.
These reforms will reduce wrongful convictions due to unreliable jailhouse informant testimony and help to ensure the actual perpetrators are prosecuted. GN-IP extends a special thanks to Representative Jamie Long (D Minneapolis) and Senator Bill Ingebrigtsen (R Alexandria) for their work in leading the passage of this important legislation.