A major scandal is unfolding in the Orange County District Attorney’s office. For decades, prosecutors have apparently been misusing jailhouse informants to win convictions. D.A. officials allegedly planted informants with suspects to get confessions, then withheld information from defense attorneys. All of this was exposed by a defense lawyer during the death penalty trial of Scott Derkaai. Derkaai is the Huntington Beach man who shot his ex-wife and seven others in a beauty salon four years ago. The judge ended up throwing the entire D.A.’s office off the case, so what should’ve been a straightforward prosecution is now in limbo -- and so are dozens, maybe hundreds, of past convictions. What happens next?
KCRW
