Should Law Enforcement Supply False News to Catch Suspects?
Nov 13th, 2007 • Posted in: NewsFORT COLLINS, Colo.
A request for a new trial in a Fort Collins, Colorado, murder case is raising a variety of ethics issues, including a controversy about whether it’s proper for police to plant false or misleading stories in the press in order to further an investigation.
The Fort Collins Coloradan reports that some law enforcement officials and media experts are criticizing the planting of a story that implied that progress was being made in a murder case, when in reality the investigation was stalled. The story, says the Coloradan, was aimed at putting pressure on Tim Masters, the prime suspect, who was later convicted and imprisoned.
Masters was observed to see if he did anything suspicious, such as visit the victim’s grave or the crime scene.
A memo obtained by the Coloradan said that the technique was suggested by FBI behavior scientists. The FBI declined comment.
Bob Steele, an ethicist at the Poynter Institute, a Florida-based journalism education program, told the Coloradan that such tactics raise troubling ethics issues.
“It is exceptionally rare to have a law enforcement agency or government agency try to plant a patently false story in order to then generate a specific action, in this case on the part of a crime suspect,” Steele said. “It can corrupt and corrode the essential trust that must exist between law enforcement and journalism, even while there are different values and different purposes for the professionals involved.”
The controversy centers on the 1988 murder of Peggy Hettrick. Masters, now serving a life sentence, is seeking a new trial based on alleged missteps on the part of prosecutors, reports CNN.
Among the allegations made by Masters’ attorneys is that the prosecution concealed details of the false story during trial, according to the Rocky Mountain News.
The request for a new trial also hinges on allegations that the prosecution concealed the existence of another suspect, notes the Denver Post.
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