By Ana Zamora and Brendan Hamme

“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning...”

For anyone who watches legal dramas and cop shows, this line is pretty familiar. Under the Fifth Amendment, anyone in police custody has the right to be advised by an attorney during questioning. At least that’s how it’s supposed to work.

But if you’ve been charged with a crime in Orange County, California sometime over the past several decades, the following scenario appears to have played out all too frequently. One night you’re in your cell, when another inmate begins talking to you. He expresses interest in your well-being, and builds your trust by giving you advice about how to make it in the jail. Eventually, he starts to ask you about your case.

Little do you know that deputies with the sheriff’s department placed you and this jailhouse informant together – the informant posing as just another inmate — so that the informant could illegally question you about your case. Even worse, when that informant becomes a witness at your trial, the prosecution never reveals how you actually came together or shares the full story of the witness’ history as an informant.

Shocking evidence has emerged of a system-wide violation of defendants’ rights being orchestrated in Orange County. And the illegal use of jailhouse informants that has been uncovered so far appears to be just the tip of the iceberg. Both the sheriff’s department and the district attorney’s office are implicated in grave misconduct. And as far as we can tell, the corruption has been going on for over twenty-five years.

We estimate that thousands of people in Orange County may have had their civil rights violated while navigating a criminally dysfunctional justice system. At the same time, informants have enjoyed benefits ranging from dismissal of charges, reduction of sentences and even in some instances protection from prosecution for crimes as serious as murder.

Not only has the Orange County Sheriff’s Department been secretly facilitating efforts by jailhouse informants to elicit statements from fellow inmates, but the Orange County District Attorney’s office appears to have systemically concealed evidence about these informants from defense attorneys, including evidence that would exonerate defendants.

Though a number of journalists have reported on the widespread miscarriage of justice being orchestrated in Orange County, we don’t yet know how far this misconduct has gone.

Last week, the ACLU joined with several organizations and experts to call on the Department of Justice to open an investigation. The situation in Orange County is too big, and too political, to be handled by any other entity.

There is significant evidence of prosecutorial and law enforcement misconduct going on for decades. We need the DOJ to get to the bottom of this, and fast.

Ana Zamora is the criminal justice policy director at the ACLU of Northern California and Brendan Hamme is a staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California.

By Chase Strangio

It has been a particularly violent year for the transgender community.
 

At least 21 transgender people have been murdered in the United States so far this year. Eighteen of them are transgender women of color. These murders have been perpetrated against the backdrop of a particularly vitriolic political climate in which the idea of trans equality has prompted organized campaigns to denounce the dignity and humanity of transgender people.

Today, on the Transgender Day of Remembrance, we mourn the losses in our community. We remember those who have died not only at the hateful hands of others but also by suicide, untreated illness, incarceration.

But we don’t just mourn today. We also honor the fight and the beauty of our community.

At the ACLU, we thank our fierce transgender clients who are taking on the powerful and fighting for a more just world for transgender people and everyone else.
Thank you to:

• Chelsea Manning, who is fighting the military for her health care while incarcerated at the United States Disciplinary Barracks where she is serving a 35-year sentence for convictions related to her release of documents to WikiLeaks.
• Meagan Taylor, who is bringing a civil rights action against the Drury Inn in West Des Moines, Iowa, after hotel staff called the police complaining that “two men dressed as women” had checked-in and they suspected prostitution when she and another Black trans friend came to the hotel.
• Gavin Grimm, who is suing his school district for refusing to let him use the boys’ bathroom like other boys only because he is transgender.
• Shane Ortega, who has been leading the fight for open military service for transgender people.
• Student A in District 211, Illinois, who filed a civil rights complaint against her school district for forcing her into a separate locker room and denying her access to the girls’ locker room solely because she is transgender.
• Patricia Dawson, who sued her employer for firing her because she is transgender.
• Monica Jones, who challenged the criminalization and police profiling of transgender women of color.
• Emani Love, Code Stone, Tina Seitz, and our other clients, who are challenging Michigan’s refusal to issue corrected licenses to transgender people without a court order.

And to so many other ACLU clients who took on great personal risk to change the world.

You inspire us, and to honor those we have lost, we will keep fighting by your side.

Chase Strangio is staff attorney with the LGBT & HIV Project at the ACLU.