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Texas con artist + jailhouse confessions


Nice Guy Eddie

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Basically this guy spent the several decades in Texas and Florida constantly ripping people off, and when caught he would always make up confessions from other prisoners. he was the DAs star witness in many trials. 

a common tactic that the DA used was not promising him anything so he could truthfully claim on the witness stand that he was getting nothing in return. “I just want to do what’s right to pay for my past sins.” When the trial concluded, the DA would then give him reduced time or parole.  But he was always back in trouble within months.  Lives in Corsicana now.

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During a single six-year span, from 1981 to 1987, Skalnik testified or supplied information in at least 37 cases in Pinellas County alone

One convicted felon made a great point in why would he unburden himself to the jail’s known snitch?  However it’s tough for the defendant to fight the confession unless he is willing to get on the stand himself.

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My above comment notwithstanding, this agenda-driven reporter wrote an article on the Joe Bryan case not too long ago that conveniently left out very incriminating information on Bryan.  So I would take her claims about the strength of the State's evidence in various cases with several heaping teaspoons of salt.  

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14 minutes ago, bschoolprof said:

My above comment notwithstanding, this agenda-driven reporter wrote an article on the Joe Bryan case not too long ago that conveniently left out very incriminating information on Bryan.  So I would take her claims about the strength of the State's evidence in various cases with several heaping teaspoons of salt.  

Fair enough and always good to  be skeptical about subjective statements. However it’s impossible to know exactly what evidence puts the guilty verdict across the goal line.  And a confession can be compelling especially if the person seems to have little to gain from it.

Whenever cops or DAs cut corners, we should all be angry as it increases the chance of sentences being overturned or the wrong person being guilty. The end result is that the bad guy is still on the street committing crimes.

And if you let a con artist go early from prison in exchange for testimony, he is now destroying someone else’s life. The story references that he was married 8 or 9 times, stealing money with each one. And molesting a least one stepdaughter.

 

Edited by Nice Guy Eddie
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27 minutes ago, bschoolprof said:

Jailhouse snitch testimony should be excluded from trials as a matter of policy (like lie detectors).  The probability of unreliability is just too high and juries have not shown enough ability to assess credibility.   

In addition to the inherent unreliability of the testimony, I think the state has been complicit far too often in generating "unreliable" (at minimum) testimony so that exclusion could legitimately be viewed as punishing the state for wrongdoing and further raising the burden of proof.

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30 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

It's rather disturbing how completely reliant on "informants" our criminal justice system has become (if it ever wasn't).

I don't think the feds bring a case to trial that doesn't involve someone turning "states evidence."

According to Art Acevedo it worked real well in Houston for the big shootout where 5 of his cops got shot and the two evil drug lords assumed room temperature.

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I read this article over the weekend and it was fairly horrifying.

22 hours ago, bschoolprof said:

My above comment notwithstanding, this agenda-driven reporter wrote an article on the Joe Bryan case not too long ago that conveniently left out very incriminating information on Bryan.  So I would take her claims about the strength of the State's evidence in various cases with several heaping teaspoons of salt.  

This is a great point and it's difficult to assess how influential his testimony was in each case, but holy shit this guy was testifying in trials where people got the death penalty. And then he was getting let out of prison over and over again as a reward, only to get out and ruin more people's lives with his con game. I can't imagine how many lives this piece of shit destroyed.

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At least the POS is living in Corsicana in this condition.  Of course, I have no doubt that our tax dollars are covering his luxury accommodations.

08-mag-Informants-superJumbo.jpg?quality

It's possible that some DAs didn't fully know his background but there should be the darkest red flags when a con artist wants to testify to cut a deal. His crime is lying to get ahead so why wouldn't he continue to do the same to get out of jail sooner.   Of course, cutting a deal with a felon has practically zero blow back on the DA because all they care about is the next conviction not keeping some other felon in prison.

not too mention that his biggest crimes were lying about his military experience (he served but lied about being in combat) and that he played football at UT.

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