"deep in thousands of pages of court records spread across two states"

December 31, 2019 10:58 AM

He’s a Liar, a Con Artist and a Snitch. His Testimony Could Soon Send a Man to His Death., Pamela Colloff, Pro Publica, outlines the career of a prolific jailhouse informant, who has provided testimony crucial to securing several murder convictions.

Serial jailhouse informant Paul Skalnik has deep local history

Doubts linger, but James Dailey is set to die for murder of Pinellas girl

But within days, two men who worked in the jail law library said they had overheard Dailey make incriminating statements. A third man, Paul Skalnik, a former police officer, also claimed Dailey admitted the murder to him.
Skalnik was a prolific informer. And Dailey’s was one of many cases in which he told police he’d learned of incriminating statements. Skalnik’s testimony helped send four men to death row and several more to prison for murder.
But Skalnik was also a con artist, racking up more than 20 convictions for crimes including grand larceny by fraud, according to court documents.
Dailey denied he had ever met Skalnik.

A long, branching tweet thread from Pro Publica

Will Florida Kill An Innocent Man?, NYTimes Opinion

posted by the man of twists and turns (2 comments total)

Threadreader link for those who feel that reading long Twitter threads are like getting squicked by Ted Bundy.
posted by drivingmenuts at 7:23 PM on December 31, 2019

ACAB, even former ones...
posted by LizBoBiz at 12:26 AM on January 2, 2020