Lincoln senator’s bill takes aim at jailhouse testimony

Christy Sheppard traveled to Lincoln from Ada, Oklahoma Wednesday, to testify in committee in favor of Sen. Adam Morfeld’s bill that would establish safeguards against unreliable jailhouse testimony.

“I was 8 years old when my cousin was murdered, actually just down the street from where my mom and I lived,” Sheppard said.

Two men were wrongly convicted of her cousin’s murder, partially based on jailhouse witness testimony, while the real killer went on to commit other violent crimes.

Even though that happened in Oklahoma, Sen. Morfeld said it can happen anywhere.

“Jailhouse witness testimony played a role in 159 wrongful convictions in the United States since 1959, harming the innocent persons and allowing actual perpetrators to escape justice,” Morfeld said.

He said his bill would provide more transparency surrounding jailhouse witness testimony by requiring the state to disclose it at least 30 days before trial and having judges hold pretrial hearings to screen out unreliable jailhouse witness statements.

“It’s just an extra protection for everyone for the victims and for people who are potentially innocent and it protects the system from informants taking advantage and trading lies for their own benefit,” Sheppard said.

But prosecutors said it would hinder carrying out their duties.

“I don’t believe that a situation where adding a 30–day requirement or, more specifically, putting the judge in the position of determining credibility before the trier of fact would be appropriate for that matter,” Deputy Douglas County Attorney John Alagaban said.

Corey O’Brien of the Nebraska Attorney General’s office echoed Alagaban.

“I don’t know, from what’s written in the bill, how a judge would ever be able to determine — and how I as the prosecutor would ever be able to prove — that they are, in fact, reliable,” O’Brien said.

This bill must go through the Judiciary Committee before being debated on the floor.