Shady Information Authorities’ use of confidential informants also garnered criticism at the Saturday event. Verma said confidential informants work to derail the justice system by incriminating what could be relatively small players in the criminal scheme. In some cases, she said, their information could even lead to a conviction of not just a criminally trivial person, but also an entirely innocent one. “Confidential informants are motivated by self-advancement. They work for the government, often undercover, to gather and provide information or to testify in exchange for cash or leniency in punishment for their own crimes. They should never take the place of a real witness. Their motives have to be suspect,” Verma said. Peterson said her office had to occasionally turn to confidential informants, but she admits to being leery of using them. “Confidential informants are a tool that you have to deal with, but I didn’t re-
ally like using them because an informant word of a confidential informant to convict don’t have our own lawyers. What we get is sometimes about as dirty as the person someone. Confidential informant testi- is an underfunded state lawyer who is not they’re telling on,” Peterson said. “They mony now has to be corroborated in Texas always working in your best interest.” do have their ulterior motives. They tend to convict someone,” Kelly said. to negotiate for reduced charges, and they “You know what?” she then asked, can be problematic for us because you have contemplatively. “Saying it out loud and Embarrassing Connections The codependency of the government to balance your informant’s information hearing it, it’s actually hard to believe that it versus how dirty your informant is. And was never that way to begin with. It sounds and crime can get absurd, according to Ricky the amount of dirt on them makes a dif- ridiculous that they ever did it the old way. Ross, another speaker at the Criminal Justice ference on whether or not we can use them Convicting someone on the account of a Conference. Ross was a major Los Angeles before a jury.” single paid informant, or somebody who’s drug trafficker who virtually opened the Peterson said her office had to labori- getting a reduced sentence for convicting western seaboard to the phenomenon of crack cocaine in the 1980s. ously check behind confidential informant somebody else, sounds crazy.” Ross, who earned the name “Freeway” information, and that too little research Kelly added that authorities do their could easily jettison the case. part to make sure the system has a steady in part due to the open-spigot manner “Sometimes confidential informants stream of defenseless minorities to keep in which he bathed L.A. and cities as far have to be used in a court because there federal grants coming. She filed a civil- away as Cincinnati in crack cocaine, made is no other way to verify something. I always dealt with them very cautiously. I had to be very careful. We got burned sometimes on informants,” Peterson said. “Maurice Warner got off on one case because of a bad informant.” In 2006, back when she was district attorney, Peterson failed to convict murder suspects Vidal Sullivan and codefendants Anthony Staffney and Zedrick Maurice Warner for the February 2003 murder of Carey Bias after an informant recanted his story. The same year, Peterson had to drop murder charges against Albert “Batman” Donelson because she said former Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics Director Frank Former drug traffiker Ricky Ross and Texas resident Regina Kelly spoke at the Melton “tainted” the chief April 10 Third Annual Mississippi Justice Conference. witness. Donelson was a suspect in the 1998 slaying of Harrison Hilliard. Sworn statements revealed that Melton had pro- rights lawsuit with the ACLU—Regina international news when a series of “Dark vided an apartment, a car and a credit Kelly v. John Paschall—on behalf of 15 Alliance” articles by reporter Gary Webb in card to informant Christopher Walker, black Hearne, Texas, residents indicted in the San Jose Mercury News connected one however. During the course of the November 2000 raids. The suit, settled of Ross’s cocaine suppliers, Oscar Danilo trial, Melton claimed he had provided for between the ACLU and Robertson County Blandon Reyes, with the CIA and the adWalker in order to protect him. Walker in 2005, accused the South Central Texas ministration of President Ronald Reagan later told the JFP that Melton asked him to Narcotics Task Force for deliberately con- as part of the Iran-Contra scandal. Reyes lie in the case. ducting racially motivated drug sweeps for revealed the connection when he testified during Ross’ 1996 federal trial. Ross was Melton later supported current Dis- 15 years in Hearne. trict Attorney Robert Shuler Smith to sucKelly, who was also caught up in the on trial for purchasing more than 100 kicessfully run against Peterson in the Hinds 2000 bust, complains that authorities went lograms of cocaine from a federal agent in County Democratic primary. out of their way to target blacks because a sting operation orchestrated with the help Regina Kelly, a public speaker at the blacks gave them relatively effortless con- of his partner, Reyes. Initially facing life in prison, an appeals Saturday conference who beat back an in- victions and plea bargains. dictment based on the testimony of a lone “They conducted these annual raids court reduced his sentence to 20 years. Good confidential informant, told the JFP that in order to push for plea bargains and behavior reduced his sentence further, and the dodgy nature of confidential informant felony convictions to get more money authorities released him last September. “I don’t hide from nothing,” Ross said testimony, coupled with the ACLU’s work from federal grants, which went directly in Texas, restricted the use of confiden- to police cars and police uniforms and as he paraded back and forth before the tial informants to convict defendants in things like that,” Kelly said. “This kind of crowd of about 200—even as he apparently that state. thing doesn’t just happen in our town in hid from a sense of remorse. The JFP asked Ross if he felt guilty at “The national ACLU stepped in and Texas; it’s everywhere. Authorities know did a civil suit, and changed law in Texas that resources are limited for minorities. the 1980s height of his career about the vast so that you can no longer use the single We don’t have the money to fight back; we army of crack babies and drug prostitutes he TOUGH, see page 20
ADAM LYNCH
work environment of the remaining handful of public defenders, according to the report, makes it easy for them to fail to explain the terms of plea agreements, misinform clients about the length of sentences, and convey other erroneous information. The fund also discovered that courtappointed defense attorneys did not often have the time to interview crucial witnesses or investigate defenses. Defendants’ protests about witnesses and alibis often go ignored, or prompt a warning that rejecting a plea offer will provoke the judge to expand their prison time. Often, according to the LDF report, “court-appointed attorneys stand mutely at the podium without offering a single word on their clients’ behalf.” Johnson pointed out recently that many defense attorneys in rural states (most of the state is rural, he quickly adds) have full-time jobs as private-practice attorneys and do not possibly have time to speak to witnesses or do any investigative work on behalf of many of their publiclyassigned clients. Some of the attorneys can get assigned the case more than a year after the crime occurred, raising the possibility of crime scenes changing, memories going foggy and witnesses moving away or even dying. “Shortfalls in public defense are a problem for minorities because you have many minority-dominated areas with high unemployment rates, and where blacks are unable to afford counsel, or adequate defense,” Johnson said. “The state of Mississippi doesn’t have a public-defender system, so you have a number of individuals who are incarcerated for crimes they didn’t commit, or have more years than necessary for the crime they did commit.”
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‘TOUGH on CRIME’
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