To help streamline the process, the Marshals instituted a clearinghouse in 1988 for recent inductees in the Washington, D.C.
In some cases, witnesses waited months for new birth certificates or social security numbers. THEY HAVE ORIENTATION.įor years, WITSEC was plagued by a haphazard method of educating enrollees on what was required of them and what they might expect from being relocated and assigned a new name. Here’s as much detail about the program you’re going to get without finding yourself in a considerable amount of trouble. With author Pete Earley, Shur co-wrote a book, WITSEC: Inside the Federal Witness Protection Program, on his career over the years, various WITSEC enlistees have spoken to media about the stress of assuming new identities. But that hasn’t stopped bits of information from leaking out. Marshals assigned with forging new identities for these individuals are notoriously guarded and rarely speak on the record about program specifics. But witnesses with information so provocative their life is at risk make for strong cases: Trials involving WITSEC have an 89 percent conviction rate.
By some estimates, the government spends upwards of $10 million annually to keep the WITSEC program going. Protecting whistleblowers from the dangerous criminals they implicate doesn’t come cheap. It was WITSEC and the promise of a government-subsidized hiding place that convinced several “made” men of the mafia to turn their backs on organized crime and help prosecutors convict numerous leaders, from John Gotti to several members of the Lucchese family.
Developed by Justice Department employee Gerald Shur and beginning in 1971, the Federal Witness Protection Program-or Witness Security Program (WITSEC)-has provided safe harbor for over 18,000 federal witnesses and their families in exchange for damning testimony.
0 kommentar(er)
