![witness protection program witness protection program](http://www.theadvocates.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Witness-Protection.jpg)
And in my mind that’s three places that they are not going. Shur states, “I would say to them, ‘Tell me what’s your favorite place in the U.S.?’ ” Shur said, “and they’d say, ‘I always wanted to go to Hawaii,’ or that they had family in Texas or Florida. Who decides where witnesses should be relocated to? The marshals chose the location where witnesses will live. “Not everybody is a killer or a member of the Hell’s Angels or the mob, but there are people who are doing business with criminals.” “Ninety-five percent of them are what we call criminals,” he said. In an interview with CNN, Gerald Shur, who created the program most witnesses who enter the program are not law-abiding citizens. Marshals Service.” The program reports an 89% conviction rate with over ten thousand criminals being convicted due to the program.Īll this sounds wonderful, but is there a down side?
![witness protection program witness protection program](https://img2.grunge.com/img/gallery/the-truth-about-witness-protection-in-the-united-states/the-u-s-witness-protection-program-has-been-operating-for-a-long-time-1579215932.jpg)
Marshal’s Service states on their website that “No Witness Security Program participant following program guidelines has been harmed or killed while under the active protection of the U.S. Not only do they receive financial assistance for housing, they also basic living expenses, healthcare, and if needed get job training and employment. In addition to getting new identities and documentation like social security cards, birth certificates, marriage certificates, driver’s licenses, passports, and any other identification papers witnesses are also given financial assistance.
![witness protection program witness protection program](https://www.gcforme.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/ni-witness-protection-program.jpg)
#Witness protection program trial#
The witness will be guarded 24-hours a day during all pre-trial and trial activities assuring they will survive to testify. If a witness has agreed to testify in a criminal trial their protection begins immediately. Attorney’s office, the Department of Justice’s Office of Enforcement Operations, and any local referring agency. That is unless said stalker or former spouse falls into one of the major crimes categories.īefore being admitted to the program the witness is thoroughly investigated by the U.S. Marshals Service provides for the security, health and safety of government witnesses, and their immediate dependents, whose lives are in danger as a result of their testimony against drug traffickers, terrorists, organized crime members and other major criminals.” So if you’re hiding from your neighborhood stalker or a former spouse who resents your departure from a bad relationship the Witness Protection Program is probably not going to be available to you. Marshall Service Witness Security Program (WITSEC) was designed in 1970 for rather specific purposes. It appears in reality this is not quite the way things work. Given new names, they are seemingly provided new jobs and lives where they are securely protected from whatever criminal or criminal group would kill them and their loved ones in revenge for something or to prevent exposure of the criminal’s nefarious activities. In the movies and on TV, witnesses are gathered together and efficiently moved away from friends, jobs, and sometimes even families to new locations. Being a writer I have often wondered exactly how the Witness Protection Program works.