I was catching up on the Fourth Circuit's recent opinions this weekend when I came across United States v. Luck. It raises some interesting issues that are not specific to federal court, so I thought I'd put together a post about it. The defendant in Luck was charged with drug and gun crimes. The government's evidence came primarily from two informants: one was working off charges, while the other was working to help the first, and for money. Although one of the informants made two supervised drug purchases from the defendant, she was not searched thoroughly prior to the purchases. There was virtually no other corroboration of the informants' testimony. Nonetheless, the defendant was convicted and sentenced to 444 months in prison. The case was affirmed on direct appeal. The defendant then sought collateral review, arguing in pertinent part that his trial lawyer was ineffective for failing to request a jury instruction on informant testimony, i.e., an instruction that informants' testimony "must be examined and weighed by the jury with greater care than the testimony of an ordinary witness" because of their particular interests and biases. The federal district court denied relief on this claim, but the Fourth Circuit reversed, vacating the defendant's convictions. The court began by suggesting, but not actually holding, that such an instruction should be given as a matter of course in many cases: "Among the other circuits that have considered this question, there is a consensus that an informant instruction is necessary when the informant’s testimony [...]
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