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LIRA@BC Law

Abstract

Following the murder of Rachel Morningstar Hoffman—a 23-year old college graduate—Florida passed “Rachel’s Law,” which established new guidelines for the police when dealing with confidential informants. Immediately prior to its enactment, lawmakers stripped Rachel’s Law of key provisions. These provisions required police to provide a potential informant with an attorney before agreeing to any deal. Opponents of these provisions argue that they hamstring law enforcement agencies in their efforts to prosecute drug crimes. Rather than serving as an obstacle to effective law enforcement, the attorney provision in the original version of Rachel’s Law enables efficient prosecution of crimes and protects minor drug offenders who may be unsuited for potentially dangerous undercover informant work. This Note recommends that the attorney provision be restored to Rachel’s Law, and encourages other states to enact similar statutes.

Files

File nameDate UploadedVisibilityFile size
9.pdf
7 Sep 2022
Public
232 kB

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Metadata

  • Subject
    • Law Enforcement and Corrections

  • Journal title
    • Boston College Journal of Law & Social Justice

  • Volume
    • 32

  • Issue
    • 2

  • Pagination
    • 391

  • Date submitted

    7 September 2022