All were fired and faced long prison terms. Prosecutors eventually discovered the informants used by postal inspectors had fabricated the whole thing. Since 1988, seven death row inmates in Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia and Texas have had their convictions reversed, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C., after it was learned that informants had lied to the jury, or that police officers had pressured snitches to fabricate jailhouse confessions, or that prosecutors had failed to disclose payments to informants. Startled by intruders, a sleepy and drunken Donald P. Scott emerged from his bedroom with a pistol in his hand. Despite a thorough search of his estate, no drugs were found.
Experts cite several explanations for the rise in informants.
Federal sentencing guidelines with mandatory minimums are a prime culprit. If agents have enough evidence to charge someone with a crime carrying a 20-year prison sentence, and the only way to remain free is to cooperate, the choice is easy. All of the federal law agencies, and DEA in particular, have been hiring agents out of college with no previous investigative experience. These are people who have never been street-trained on how to deal with informants. Attorneys and some agents argue that another big reason for the proliferation of snitches is simple ambition on the part of investigators.