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Great question, Lana. There are so many issues involved in deciding whether to work with a defendant as a cooperating witness. In my violent crime practice in DC, I used more cooperating witness than many other prosecutors. I used to say...
2. “I’ll do business with the devil if he’ll give me two bodies.” That’s obviously an exaggeration, but the point is I would deal with a killer as a cooperating witness IF he could help me bring other killers to justice. You might be surprised to know ...
3. there is something of a “fraternity of killers” in DC. I spent 22 of my 30 years as a prosecutor working homicide cases in our nation’s capital, handling hundreds of murder cases. As part of that process, I met with (“debriefed”) more killers that I can count ...
4. The overwhelming majority of murder defendants w/whom I spoke knew (& often told me) who else was doing the killing in DC. The difficult question then became-can I do business w/this killer to try to get other killers off the street & bring justice to other homicide families?
5. Now back to Epstein. The challenges can be even greater when prosecutors are trying to decide whether to deal with an alleged serial sex offender/pedophile as a cooperating witness. The crimes can be so horrific that you hate to work with such a person as a cooperating witness
6. But if a serial sex offender can provide prosecutors with accurate/truthful/reliable information that helps bring OTHER sexual predators to justice and prevent future crimes, than often prosecutors will decide to work with such a defendant as a cooperating witness ...
7. I hasten to add that any time we’re contemplating working w/defendants (whether violent criminals, sex offenders, financial or public corruption defendants, etc.), the key is making sure you can corroborate/verify EVERYTHING they tell you about the crimes committed by others.
8. Hope that helps answer your question.
