Innocent Lives Matter: Government Use of Informant Testimony and Its Impact on Wrongful Convictions
One of the most important tools that the government often uses is informant testimony. An informant can come in many forms. For instance, there are police informants that typically “keep their ear to the streets” so that they can report any information helpful to police investigations. There are also in-custody informants in which the individual is currently serving a prison sentence and proclaims the defendant confessed to certain criminal activity. This type of informant i