Marion County prosecutor believes use of jailhouse informants needs to be reviewed

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears believes the use of jailhouse informants needs to be reviewed. As I-Team reported , multiple murder convictions in St. Joseph County are being challenged based on allegations authorities used jailhouse informants who lied on the witness stand. Without specifically speaking on these cases, Prosecutor Mears told I-Team the lack of regulation in Indiana “certainly could be” ripe for abuse because of the clear incentive for people in custody to lie to reduce their own sentences. “I think it definitely deserves greater scrutiny,” Mears said. “Because we receive literally tons of letters every single day from people writing us in the Marion County Jail to say ‘I have information on this murder, I have information on this robbery.’” According to The Innocence Project, jailhouse informant testimony plays a role in nearly one in five DNA-based exoneration cases, making it one of the leading contributing factors of wrongful convictions across the country. In Indiana, prosecutors are not required to track an informant’s history as a witness. So prosecutors often don’t know how often a person in custody has testified. Professor Jimmy Gurulé, founder of the University of Notre Dame, previously told I-Team the lack of oversight can create “serial informants” who serve as witnesses in multiple cases they otherwise have no connection to. “Their credibility is clearly an issue. They have an interest in doing and saying whatever the police want them to say,” Gurule said. That credibility issue can create its own set of problems for prosecutors. “Juries don’t like jailhouse snitches. They just don’t,” Mears said. “Because they understand the inherent conflict there.” Prosecutors are required to disclose explicit deals to reduce sentences in exchange for testimony. But there doesn’t need to be a written agreement for informants to expect a benefit. “Any time you have someone who is volunteering information, but only wants to volunteer information if they receive a benefit, that’s something that we all have to be mindful of,” Mears said. The Exoneration Justice Clinic, along with the Innocence Project and Indiana Public Defenders Council, are pushing for legislation to put guardrails in place ; including pre-trial hearings to establish an informant’s credibility, special jury instructions before they testify, and a requirement to track an informant’s history as a state’s witness. Mears supports the idea of special jury instructions, and suggested he’s open to the idea of tracking an informant’s record as a witness.  “But hopefully most people are viewing this with a skeptical eye.”