What does it mean for a witness to get immunity?

Posted on January 19, 2008
Filed Under Criminal Law, Process |

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. This is no guarantee that the witness cannot be prosecuted for that crime, it just means that the prosecutor would have to find evidence somewhere else. In practice this is rare.

Transactional immunity is broader than use immunity and gives a witness a pass on any crimes he is forced to testify about. For instance, Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano was given immunity for committing 19 murders in exchange for his testimony against John Gotti.

Immunity does not have to be cooperative, it can be put in place by court order and then the witness would be compelled to testify. A prosecutor may wish to have this setup in place for reasons of perception even if the witness is cooperative. The idea being that the witness had no choice in the matter which could make a better impression on the jury than someone who was just cutting a deal.

Written by steve

Comments

One Response to “What does it mean for a witness to get immunity?”

  1. Fred on March 4th, 2008 8:49 am

    While the concept of immunity makes sense, it is difficult for any jury to accept the word of an eye witness that may not come forward out of the goodness of that person’s heart. There is skepticism and mistrust. Probably rightfully so.

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