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10 J. Tech. L. & Pol'y 223 (2005)
Jailhouse Informants: A Lesson in E-Snitching

handle is hein.journals/jtlp10 and id is 227 raw text is: JAILHOUSE INFORMANTS: A LESSON IN E-SNITCHING Valerie Alter* I. INTRODUCTION .................................... 223 II. A PRIMER ON JAILHOUSE INFORMANTS .................. 224 III. A LESSON IN E-SNITCHING ........................... 228 IV. CAN STATES PREVENT PRISONERS' ACCESS TO INTERNET-GENERATED MATERIALS? ................... 231 A. Constitutional Considerations ...................... 232 B. Practical Considerations .......................... 236 V. CONCLUSION ...................................... 240 I. INTRODUCTION Informants have been falsifying confessions in the United States since at least 1819. That year, Vermont authorities could not solve an alleged homicide since the victim was missing, and brought in a known perjurer for help. The perjurer elicited a confession from a suspect, who received the death penalty. Days before the hanging was to take to place, the supposed murder victim returned to town, alive.' Today, jailhouse informants, many of whom are pathological liars, who tell prosecutors about suspects' alleged confessions, will receive leniency or other perks. Problems stemming from this prompted a grand jury investigation in Los Angeles in 19902 and contributed to the commutation of all Illinois death sentences in 2003.3 What would happen if it were even easier for informants to get information about fellow inmates? Would there be more informants, or would prosecutors and the criminal justice system finally decide that informants are untrustworthy and that they do more harm than good? With * Stanford Law School Class of 2005, Law Clerk to the Honorable Sidney R. Thomas, 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. 1. Sean Gardiner, 'Insider' Trading; Jailhouse Snitches Have Long History of Deals With DAs, NEWSDAY, Dec. 9, 2003, at A08. 2. Ted Rohrlich, Perjurer Sentenced to 3 Years, L.A. TIMES, May 20, 1992, Part B, at 1. 3. Gardiner, supra note 1.

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