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Informer's Privilege

By Baker Associates

The Tennessee Supreme Court recently had the opportunity to revisit the informer?s privilege. In particular, the court addressed the circumstances under which the identity of a confidential informant must be disclosed to a criminal defendant prior to trial. What is the informer?s privilege? It is the government?s privilege to not reveal the identity of an informer. The justification for the privilege is twofold: 1) to protect informants from reprisals and 2) to maintain the informant?s confidential status. The privilege does not apply where the informer is also a government witness during the criminal trial. The informer?s privilege is not absolute and must be waived when the defendant demonstrates by a preponderance of the evidence that the informer?s identity is crucial to his or her defense...continue to full post

Full post as published by Tennessee Criminal Lawyer Blog on September 01, 2009 (boomark / email).