Prosecutors Must Answer Accusations on Snitches
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge this week granted prosecutors more than a month to respond to allegations that jailhouse informants lied in the 1977 murder trial of former San Gabriel Police Officer Billy Joe McIlvain.
McIlvain, 45, who is serving a life sentence for abducting and executing a teen-age gang member, contended in a writ last month that prosecutors used perjured testimony from snitches and rewarded them with the lure of lenient sentences.
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