Snitch: Informants, Cooperators, and the Corruption of Justice [Hardcover]

Ethan Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 27, 2007 | ISBN-10: 1586484923 | ISBN-13: 978-1586484927

Our criminal justice system favors defendants who know how to play the "5K game": criminals who are so savvy about the cooperation process that they repeatedly commit serious crimes knowing they can be sent back to the streets if they simply cooperate with prosecutors. In Snitch, investigative reporter Ethan Brown shows through a compelling series of case profiles how the sentencing guidelines for drug-related offenses, along with the 5K1.1 section, have unintentionally created a "cottage industry of cooperators," and led to fabricated evidence. The result is wrongful convictions and appallingly gruesome crimes, including the grisly murder of the Harvey family in Richmond, Virginia and the well-publicized murder of Imette St. Guillen in New York City.

This cooperator-coddling criminal justice system has ignited the infamous "Stop Snitching" movement in urban neighborhoods, deplored by everyone from the NAACP to the mayor of Boston for encouraging witness intimidation. But as Snitch shows, the movement is actually a cry against the harsh sentencing guidelines for drug-related crimes, and a call for hustlers to return to "old school" street values, like: do the crime, do the time. Combining deep knowledge of the criminal justice system with frontline true crime reporting, Snitch is a shocking and brutally troubling report about the state of American justice when it's no longer clear who are the good guys and who are the bad.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Brown (Queens Reigns Supreme) presents the case that harsh minimum sentencing laws have led federal prosecutors to rely too much on unreliable informants and cooperators, and too little on solid investigative work; the sentences are also, he argues, feeding the anti-snitch movement. Brown correctly notes that long minimum sentences give defendants greater incentive to lie in exchange for a reduced sentence, and he relates anecdotes about deals with unsavory criminals. But these cases don't provide any analysis of whether such arrangements are really antithetical to justice and corrupt the system. For instance, in discussing the agreement struck with unrepentant Mafia turncoat Sammy Gravano, the author doesn't assess the possibility that such plea bargains with mob leaders have contributed to the decline of traditional organized crime. Further, the author's critique of pre-emptive indictments in alleged terrorist plots based on informers could have given more weight to the legitimate fears that waiting too long to stop such a plot may be too risky. The serious issues raised by the federal government's reliance on informants and cooperative witnesses merit a more thorough and nuanced analysis than Brown provides. (Dec.)
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Review

"Brown's evidence is overwhelming" -- Legal Times, December 24th, 2007

"This chilling investigative report explores an evil that affects almost every American... Snitch is necessary reading as we go into a presidential election year." -- Penthouse, December 2007 issue

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs (November 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586484923
• ISBN-13: 978-1586484927
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #195,252 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ethan Brown is the author of three, investigative-reporting driven books on crime and criminal justice policy:

His first book--Queens Reigns Supreme: Fat Cat, 50 Cent and the Rise of the Hip-Hop Hustler--was published by Random House in 2005 to rave reviews in the Boston Globe ("diligently researched and trenchantly observed...a fascinating look at the way one generation's reality becomes the next's mythology"), The Village Voice ("one of the first reliable accounts [of the crack era]...the fact that Brown was able to publish so thorough an account is itself notable") and Publishers Weekly ("A vigorous account of an American subculture that's colorful, influential and, given the body count, tragic").

Ethan's second book--Snitch: Informers, Cooperators and the Corruption of Justice--was published by Public Affairs in 2007. The Legal Times wrote of Snitch that "Many police and prosecutors reading his book (or this review) will surely cry foul. Their cries will too often be proven insincere upon close examination, however, because Brown's evidence...is overwhelming." Brown University economics professor Glenn Loury praised Snitch as "must reading for anyone concerned about the future of 'law and order' in America." Manhattan Institute Scholar John McWhorter called Snitch one of the "strongest, smartest" books about race in the past decade.

Ethan's third book--Shake the Devil Off: A True Story of the Murder that Rocked New Orleans--was published by Henry Holt in the fall of 2009. Evan Wright, author of the New York Times bestseller Generation Kill, called Shake the Devil Off "a chilling portrait of a broken hero failed by the system." George Pelecanos, New York Times bestselling author of The Turnaround, said that "Ethan Brown examines a notorious murder case, rescues it from the talons of tabloid journalists, and comes up with something much more than a true crime book. Shake the Devil Off is a gripping suspense story, an indictment of the military's treatment of our soldiers in and out of war, and a celebration of the resilience and worth of a great American city." In a starred review, Publishers Weekly called Shake the Devil Off "heartbreaking" and Nate Blakeslee, author of Tulia, hailed the book as "a 'coming home' story that rivals any written about veterans of the war in Iraq, and a true crime account that raises the bar for the genre. Measured, thoroughly reported, and written with true empathy." David Simon, creator of The Wire and author of Homicide and The Corner, said that "looking more deeply at that from which the rest of us turned in horror, Ethan Brown has transformed an ugly and disturbing shard of the post-Katrina anguish. In this book, that which was lurid and sensational becomes, chapter by chapter, something genuinely sad and reflective, something that now has true meaning for New Orleans and for all of us." In September of 2009, Shake The Devil Off was chosen as a "Critics' Pick" in the Washington Post and an "Editors' Choice" by the editors of The New York Times Book Review. In December of 2009, the Washington Post named Shake the Devil Off one of the best books of 2009.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Greater Good?, January 30, 2008

By 

Rasheed Barnes - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Snitch: Informants, Cooperators, and the Corruption of Justice (Hardcover)

Highly recommended read. I don't know where Brown's from but he definitely delivers a horrifically accurate image of growing up in drug-plagued New York in the 80's in Queens Reigns Supreme. In this recent work, Snitch, Brown tackles the flaws in police-informant relationships. Specifically, the measures informants reach when their freedom's at stake. Brown also sheds light on the dangers of stat-hungry prosecutors purely seeking conviction numbers before justice. If you have the slightest interest in criminal justice (or injustice) buy, borrow or steal this book. This is the ugly truth to the story of police cooperation....I wish this book would been published prior to the hype around Stop Snitching so it could have served as some sort of reference....one thing's for sure, Cam'ron is still a jackass.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Snitch is a Must Read, December 3, 2007

By 

Gorilla Convict Publications (Missouri) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Snitch: Informants, Cooperators, and the Corruption of Justice (Hardcover)

"Snitch is a must read. With the current fascination with gangsters in America, and gangsta rap read what really goes on behind the scenes. All the bravado and thuggish attitudes is just for show because when these so-called gangstas get behind closed doors they are snitches on whoever and whatever, fabricating and lying on people. That is the truth of American Justice and Ethan shows it all with no punches." [...]

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sunlight is the best disinfectant..., January 23, 2008

By 

The Dilettante "Dilly!" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Snitch: Informants, Cooperators, and the Corruption of Justice (Hardcover)

This is an excellent and completely horrifying book. Academic critics like Prof. William Stuntz have documented the "pathological politics" of federal criminal law - an "iron triangle" relationship in which (1) the electorate induces (2) the legislative branch to increase the prosecutorial power of (3) the executive at the expense of the poor, withering judiciary. Sentencing guidelines -and especially stiff mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders- have raised the stakes of trial immensely. When defendants are given the choice to either: A) plead guilty to 1-2 years behind bars or B) exercise their constitutional right to trial and risk decades, it's simply no wonder that fewer and fewer cases make it into the courtroom. And this means less transparency, fewer appeals, less judicial review, and...yes...WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS! If, as Brandeis had it, "sunlight is the best disinfectant" who knows what is now growing in the darkness?

There can be no doubt that the current regime has turned US Attorneys into Grand Inquisitors. But should we worry? Why not "just trust the Government?" After all, there can be no witchhunts without false accusations and false confessions, right? This is where Ethan Brown's book makes a truly original contribution, and to my mind delivers the coup de grace to the existing federal system. The author demonstrates how that system runs on a strict and steady diet of "incentivized witnesses" - snitches in common parlance. Mandatory minimums can be a great incentive to lie and exaggerate if you are a "target" looking to roll over on your associates. But they also create perverse secondary incentives - in federal investigators and prosecutors - to skip the expensive and boring independent investigation. When all these snitches are coming to you with free eyewitness information, why bother with the hard police work? Brown persausively and devastatingly argues that the snitch has become a crutch for the Government, to the severe detriment of the rights of the accused and the integrity of the system.

This is an extremely important book because it is written from the perspective of a serious journalist for the lay public. Practitioners frequently lose the perspective to see how truly bizzare and unfair the system has become. The public, on the other hand, can't be expected to take much interest in the various subsection headings of the US Code. Ethan Brown bridges the gap for the lay public, and one can only hope this book brings some attention to this Kafkaesque nightmare.