In late November, 80 members of the Illinois House of Representatives came together to override Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto and push through a bill that places limits on courtroom use of jailhouse informants. The bill’s passage is a monumental step toward preventing wrongful convictions. In order for justice to prevail nationwide, more states should follow suit.
Jailhouse informants are incarcerated individuals who provide testimony in exchange for benefits, such as a reduced sentence or special inmate privileges. But because they have a high incentive to testify, their claims aren’t always legitimate, which poses a problem for our criminal justice system.
In Illinois alone, unreliable jailhouse informants have led to 17 wrongful convictions of innocent people, and these are just the cases that researchers have discovered thus far. While 17 may not seem like a lot, combined these people spent more than 227 years in prison for crimes they did not commit. During all this time, many other guilty criminals ran free. This was a gross miscarriage of justice that cost taxpayers $88.4 million in civil lawsuit payments and state compensation, but the cost to individuals was even greater.
Consider the case of James Kluppelberg, who is one of those 17 people stripped of their freedom unfairly. Kluppelberg spent 25 years in prison for murders he did not commit, missing out on many of life’s wonders in the meantime. Some were little, like getting to wake up in his own bed. But some cost more than money could ever buy, like the ability to raise his son. Instead, he was locked away, falsely labeled a murderer for two decades. Kluppelberg was finally released in May 2012 — with all charges dismissed.
This terrible mistake all stemmed from a simple lie told by a jailhouse informant. Like many others in his position, the informant simply said what he needed to say to get leniency in his own criminal case. The informant later admitted the lie in a sworn statement.
Now, as a supporter of the state Senate’s latest reform bill, Kluppelberg is trying to ensure that this won’t happen to anyone else in the Illinois justice system. “I missed out on raising my son, and by the time I was exonerated, my son had a family of his own. No one can give me back the years I lost behind bars for a crime I didn’t commit, but I was proud to advocate for this new law so that other innocent people won’t have to suffer the same fate,” Kluppelberg shared with Innocence Project, the organization who helped free him.
The Illinois bill will require judges to hold pretrial hearings to determine the reliability of a jailhouse informant before their testimony is admissible, at least in cases of murder, sexual assault, and arson. These types of criminal charges are extremely serious, and it’s important that courts take caution to allow only trustworthy testimony. This extra pretrial precaution will also require prosecutors to tell the court about the jailhouse informant’s complete criminal history, their previous informant activities, and most importantly, the benefits provided in exchange for the testimony.
Illinois now has the most vigorous law in the nation regarding the use of jailhouse informants—and it needs to be adopted everywhere. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, jailhouse informants played a role in 156 proven wrongful convictions across the country. Hundreds of hours and millions of dollars have been wasted due to erroneous processes. In the future, this could all be avoided if states would just implement these common-sense protections.
Too many lives have been ruined by lies told in exchange for small rewards. It’s time to put a stop to the failed use of dishonest jailhouse informants that is still routinely used nationwide. Illinois has provided an excellent model, and legislatures across the country should take note of this effort — and act immediately.
Molly Davis is a policy analyst at Libertas Institute, a free market think tank in Utah. She is also a writer for Young Voices.
