Can prisoners testify in court? If so, are there any limitations on what they can and can't say?

Yes they can, but their veracity would often be suspect. Many verdicts have been based on the testimony of other convicted criminals.

You and i rob a bank. you flee the scene and i am captured two blocks away. i am in jail now waiting for my case to be heard in court. a detective comes in to talk to me. i am willing to plea bargain my case. in other words, i will snitch on my escaped partner, for a lighter sentence in prison. everyone agrees. my partner is arrested. in court, i am about to testify that my partner was my co-conspirator in the bank robbery.

I have just testified in court, even though i am incarcirated for the same offense.

Did this help?

@john65pennington: Yes it did. I wasn’t thinking of it in those terms but that does make sense. What about someone who wasn’t necessarily involved in the crime? Can a man who’s been in prison for 10 years testify against someone else in any situation?

Yes. lets say you are arrested and convicted of a crime. once in prison, your cellmate decides to tell you all about his past crimes of being a serial killer. you pass the word that you want to talk to an Asst. District Attorney with some information. you give this info to the DA, in exchange for a lighter sentence. you will be brought from prison and appear before a judge, in order for a warrant to be issued for your cellmate. prison does not give an atmosphere of security. in other words, if you tell a cellmate about your criminal past, there is no guarantee that this information will not be used agains you.

@john65pennington So what is the difference between that and what the lawyers object to in movie dramas as beaing… uhm… is it “hear-say?” I just remember sometimes hearing “Objection your honor. Hear- say.” Specifically on legal dramas. I always assumed that meant, this person heard something but can’t know if it is true or something to that effect (like gossip). Perhaps I misunderstand it.

@KatawaGrey

OMG – It’s called due process and it is a constitutional right. Just because you’ve been arrested, that does not make you guilty or a criminal or a convict or a liar.

@escapedone7

Hearsay is when what you hear is not first hand. That is, you do not directly experience it. For example, your friend tells you that your mother said she became a lesbian. What your friend told you is hearsay. If your mother had told you directly, it would not be hearsay. If you remember the game Telephone, you remember that as messages change hands across many people, they often change themselves. That’s why the hearsay objection exists.

@lilikoi: Where in the question did I imply that someone should be deprived their due process? Perhaps I should have specified, but I was talking about prisoners who had been incarcerated already, as in, they were already in jail. I was not speaking about someone attending their own trial. Obviously they can testify. If you look at my reply to @john65pennington, you’ll see that I asked specifically about someone who’d been in jail for a span of time already.

I wouldn’t think there would be any restrictions on what they could say, but I would imagine they’d be stopped and reprimanded by the judge constantly for making comments that weren’t to the point that they were in court for, or making inadmissible comments, and yadda yadda yadda. The legal things attorneys are trained to avoid.

escapedone, i understand your question and hopefully i can explain the difference. everything is based on value. consider that statement. value meaning the importance of the information. suppose i told you that i did not get caught shoplifting a candy bar yesterday. yes, i have committed a crime, but its a misdemeanor crime, not a felony. suppose i voluntarily told you that in the last ten years, that i have killed at least 10 women at truck stops. which of this statements has more value, than the other? would you go to the DA and tell of the candy bar incident or would you go only to tell about the 10 women killed? both are hearsay evidence. in other words, at the moment, there is no proof to back up the confessors words. this is where homocide detectives come in. to check this information and gather proof and evidence that your words are not just hearsay, but your words have merit for further investigation and an arrest.

That makes sense. Wow that’s crazy that I’ve picked up legaleze I don’t even understand from watching legal dramas.