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Can Confidential Informants be used as a witness if deemed unreliable in other cases?

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quincy

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
You can add your state name and details by using the "edit post" feature in your original post or using the "reply to thread."

Thanks.

To answer your title question now, though, it is "yes." But generally there will be efforts made to keep the identity of any confidential informant confidential, by confirming through other, not confidential sources, what the confidential informant has said. And any witness whose reliability is subject to question is not a witness most parties would want to call to testify.
 

Noe1852

Junior Member
Editing

I've tried editing the state & its not working. The case is in Morgantown, West Virginia
Several people were indictment by use of the same informant. Some of the cases have been dropped because the informant deemed unreliable due to getting in more trouble and going in and out of jail. The informant is actually in more trouble than some of the people who have been indicted. For the people still waiting for their cases to be prosecuted can the informant be used to testify? Can the video be used? Police did not personally witness the control buy. The alleged transaction was not even caught on the video. The video is very limited. You can't see or hear the defendants. I just feel like something shady is going on here. There doesn't seem to be any evidence especially if the informant can't be used.
 

Noe1852

Junior Member
My nephew is one of the people indicted... So I do need to deal with it. I'm just trying to understand what's going on because nothing is being done. Everyone else's charges have been dismissed because of the informant.
 

quincy

Senior Member
I've tried editing the state & its not working. The case is in Morgantown, West Virginia
Several people were indictment by use of the same informant. Some of the cases have been dropped because the informant deemed unreliable due to getting in more trouble and going in and out of jail. The informant is actually in more trouble than some of the people who have been indicted. For the people still waiting for their cases to be prosecuted can the informant be used to testify? Can the video be used? Police did not personally witness the control buy. The alleged transaction was not even caught on the video. The video is very limited. You can't see or hear the defendants. I just feel like something shady is going on here. There doesn't seem to be any evidence especially if the informant can't be used.
Your nephew should rely on his attorney. If there is good reason to have the charges against your nephew dropped, the attorney will work to get the charges against him dropped and the case dismissed. Prosecutors rarely will try to move forward with a case that cannot be adequately supported with evidence.

From Wharton's Criminal Evidence §265 (and Brown v. US, 202 F.2d. 474, 5th Cir 1953), "Inadmissible hearsay evidence may be illustrated thus: ... information from public rumor or unidentified sources that the defendant was engaged in an illegal activity ..."

If what the confidential informant says he saw or heard is to be used as evidence against your nephew, the confidential informant will need to be identified and the confidential informant will need to testify to what he saw or heard and the confidential informant will be questioned by your nephew's attorney. It is not sufficient for a prosecutor to say that "someone" saw or heard. If the confidential informant testifies, the fact that he has been unreliable in the past can be used to impeach his testimony.

I don't know if the video can be used. It does not sound to be of much worth.

There is an Innocence Project in West Virginia, connected with West Virginia University's Clinical Law Program. If your nephew is convicted based on questionable evidence, your nephew could find help there.
http://wvinnocenceproject.wvu.edu/justice

It is good that you are looking to help your nephew but your nephew has an attorney working for him. There is little you can do to assist the attorney.
 
Last edited:

Noe1852

Junior Member
My nephew is one of the people indicted... So I do need to deal with it. I'm just trying to understand what's going on because nothing is being done. Everyone else's charges have been dismissed because of the informant.
 

quincy

Senior Member
My nephew is one of the people indicted... So I do need to deal with it. I'm just trying to understand what's going on because nothing is being done. Everyone else's charges have been dismissed because of the informant.
You already said this.
 

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