Opinion ID: 1934851
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: instruction as to an informant's testimony

Text: The trial court refused to give the following instruction requested by defendant: The testimony of an informer who provides evidence against a defendant for pay, or for immunity from punishment, or for personal advantage or vindication, must be examined and weighed by the jury with greater care than the testimony of an ordinary witness, the jury must determine whether the informer's testimony has been affected by interest, or by prejudice against defendant. Without question, a cautionary instruction of this nature should be given in a proper case. See State v. Beene, S.D., 257 N.W.2d 589, involving the testimony of an accomplice in which the court held it was reversible error to refuse a cautionary instruction similar to the one proposed by defendant herein. In the Beene case the witness was an admitted accomplice who was given immunity from prosecution for his testimony. In the present action the trial court properly refused to give the requested cautionary instruction because the record fails to show that Myrtle Poor Bear was, in fact, an informer. The only direct evidence on the subject was to the effect that no one offered her anything to testify and she was doing so on her own volition. [1]