As reported by KTVU, Caramad Conley was convicted in 1994 of two counts of first-degree murder and 11 counts of attempted murder for a 1989 drive-by shooting in San Francisco. Last week a superior court judge ruled to overturn the murder conviction after she found that San Francisco police witheld the fact that the prosecution’s key witness, Daniel Polk, was paid thousands of dollars in exchange for his testimony and that the witness was allowed by homicide inspector Earl Sanders to testify under oath that he was no longer in the witness protection program which he was receiving cash and other benefits from. Polk died in 2007. Conley has already served 16 years in prison.

Such cases illustrate the need to maintain strong management oversight of the use of confidential informants. Let’s hope that San Francisco police have improved their practices since then…