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What does it mean for a witness to get immunity?

By Steven Rodriguez

The best witness for a prosecutor is an unbiased eye witness. For certain types of crime this is rare. A witness of value may be involved in the commission of the very crime a prosecutor wants to convict someone of. How can a prosecutor make a case with this type of witness when the witness may have to incriminate himself in order to be of any value? The right to not incriminate one?s self is enshrined in our constitution, so the prosecutor must offer incentive to get witnesses to testify. For a witness involved in a crime the prospect of immunity is a powerful incentive. Immunity would protect the witness from being charged with a crime in exchange for them testifying. There are two types of immunity, ?use? and ?transactional.? Use immunity, the more narrow of the two, mean that a witnesses statements about a crime cannot be used to charge them with a crime...continue to full post

Full post as published by LA Criminal Defense Blog on January 19, 2008 (boomark / email).