Elon Law professor and criminal law expert Michael Rich is contributing during the month of August as a guest writer for "Snitching Blog," a comprehensive resource on legal developments, legislation, and news stories surrounding criminal informants.
In one post, Rich provides commentary on the New York Times report that Wikileaks.org released more than 92,000 U.S. military documents relating to the war in Afghanistan. Rich focuses his analysis on two individuals: Pfc. Bradley Manning, an Army soldier who allegedly transmitted the leaked reports to Wikileaks, and Adrian Lamo, who reported Manning’s involvement in the leak to federal authorities. After examining Lamo’s actions on behalf of the government, he asks, “[S]hould the state encourage informants, as private citizens, to commit immoral, if non-criminal, acts?”
In addition, Rich has written a series of posts on commenting on recent news articles related to confidential informants, exploring, among other topics, the “Stop Snitching” phenomenon in inner-city neighborhoods, police procedures on informant use, and the use of the word “snitch” by the media and academics.
Click on the E-Cast link to the right of this article to read Rich’s recent and upcoming blog posts on criminal informants during the month of August.
Rich’s areas of research include criminal law, civil and criminal white-collar litigation, police investigatory methods, and government fraud. His publications include, Coerced Informants and Thirteenth Amendment Limitations on the Police-Informant Relationship, Santa Clara Law Review, 2010.
Click here for additional information about Michael Rich.