Witness Slay Prompts Program Change
A fatal shooting of a prosecution witness is prompting San Francisco prosecutors to increase the number of investigators assigned to protect witnesses.
District Attorney Kamala Harris says after the shooting last week of Terrell Rollins in the city's Bayview District, she has doubled the number of investigators who work part-time to protect witnesses in criminal trials.
The increase means that 14 of the district attorney's 43 investigators will now spend three-quarters of their regular work hours protecting witnesses.
The move comes after Rollins, 22, was shot and killed Thursday morning by three men wearing masks and hooded jackets. Rollins was gunned down after he had dropped his van off for repair work at an auto shop in the city's Bayview District.
The district attorney's office had put Rollins into the witness protection program and moved him outside the city after he testified before a grand jury last fall.
Prosecutors and police had warned Rollins not to come back into the city.
Two suspected rival gang members — Daniel Dennard and Deonte Bennett — were indicted in March on murder charges after Rollins provided his testimony.
News headlines across the country highlight the impact of what police and prosecutors call an "epidemic" of witness intimidation on our criminal justice system.
One of the keys to the system is the testimony of witnesses — testimony given freely without fear of retribution. As CBS News correspondent Armen Keteyian reports, the system is breaking down in some of America's biggest cities. Criminals are literally getting away with murder because witnesses are afraid to testify.
A CBS News investigation reveals that witness intimidation affects or derails up to 30 percent of all cases involving shootings in major U.S. cities, including Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia and Los Angeles. In homicide cases, that number jumps to 90 percent, with Baltimore topping the list.
Watch Keteyian's reports on the witness-protection system:
'Conspiracy Of Silence'"We call it a 'conspiracy of silence,' and I consider Baltimore to be the epicenter of witness intimidation in the country," said Patricia Jessamy, Baltimore City State's Attorney.
In Philadelphia alone, witness intimidation is said to affect virtually every case of violent crime.
"We have to market the fact we need people to come forward. I mean, the other side being the thug culture, is certainly marketing the fact that it's not in your best interest to come forward," said Chief Inspector Joseph Fox of the Philadelphia Police Department's Homicide Division.