Witness protection program

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The Witness Protection Program is established by the Witness Protection Act, which in turn sets out the manner in which the U.S. Attorney General may provide for the relocation and protection of a witness or potential witness of the federal government, or for a state government in an official proceeding concerning organized crime or other serious offences. See 18 U.S.C.A 3521 et. seq.

Witness protection is the process in which witnesses, such as those who testify in criminal trials are protected against intimidation before their testimony or criminal retaliation after. The U.S. Federal Government both relocates and gives new identities to witnesses who risk their lives by giving testimony, and gives states grants to provide similar programs. The federal program is called the U.S. Witness Protection Program.

The purpose is reassure other witnesses that coming forward will not cost them their lives. A Pennsylvania advocate of greater state and federal aid for witness protection, State Representative Mark B. Cohen of Philadelphia, says that "Witness protection is really the number one element of victim protection. A key crisis in American criminal law is the large number of unsolved cases existing because of scared or intimidated witnesses."

Further reading

• Gregg and Gina Hill, On the Run: A Mafia Childhood, Warner Books, October 14, 2004, hardcover, 256 pages, ISBN 044652770X