Commentary: Need for jailhouse snitch reform
Stephen Wyse
One of the dirtiest secrets of the criminal justice system is that the government is permitted to compensate and reward a jailhouse witness, commonly known as a snitch, if they testify that a fellow detainee has confessed to the alleged crime.
There are almost no safeguards to prevent false testimony by these compensated witnesses. High-profile public cases have caused law enforcement to use improper means to obtain a conviction. According to the Innocence Project, police and/or prosecutorial misconduct have also been responsible for wrongful convictions of innocent citizens.
One-hundred thirty Americans have been wrongfully convicted by the false testimony of compensated jailhouse witnesses before they were later proven innocent. According to the Innocence Project, compensated witness testimony is a leading cause of wrongful convictions.
What Weâve Learned From the Robinhood Affair
Letâs put parasitic speculators out of business. How about a lead role for Joe Bidenâs most progressive former top aide, Ted Kaufman?
Former senator and longtime Biden chief of staff Ted Kaufman speaking in 2009
The stock speculation scandal dominating the front pages vividly reveals what critics of extreme financialization have been saying for decades. All of this hyper-trading produces no benefits to the real economy. It creates and then pops financial bubbles, roils markets, harms actual businesses, enriches insiders at the expense of bona fide investors, and leads to extreme concentration of wealth.