In American criminal law, a material witness is a person with information alleged to be material concerning a criminal proceeding. The authority to detain material witnesses dates to the First Judiciary Act of 1789, but the Bail Reform Act of 1984 most recently amended the text of the statute, and it is now codified at 18 U.S.C. § 3144. The most recent version allows material witnesses to be held to ensure the giving of their testimony in criminal proceedings or to a grand jury.
Since September 11, 2001, the U.S. has used the material witness statute to detain suspects without charge for indefinite periods of time, often under the rubric of securing grand-jury testimony. This use of the statute is controversial and is currently under judicial review. In Ashcroft v. al-Kidd (2011), the detainee was never charged or called as a witness, and sued John Ashcroft, then the U.S. attorney general. The Supreme Court overturned a ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and held that Ashcroft qualified for immunity because of his official position.
a materialwitness is a person with information alleged to be material concerning a criminal proceeding. The authority to detain materialwitnesses dates...
In law, a witness is someone who, either voluntarily or under compulsion, provides testimonial evidence, either oral or written, of what they know or...
A hostile witness, also known as an adverse witness or an unfavorable witness, is a witness at trial whose testimony on direct examination is either openly...
policy. Materiality (law) Material witness "Material". Wex. Cornell Law School. Retrieved 23 May 2017. "Materiality". Wex. Cornell Law School. Retrieved...
The United States Federal Witness Protection Program (WPP), also known as the Witness Security Program or WITSEC, is a witness protection program codified...
government witness or prospective government witness (other than the defendant), but only after the witness has testified. Jencks material is evidence...
merit further attention. While terms such as suspect, target, and materialwitness have clear and sometimes formal definitions, person of interest remains...
team dropped her as a prosecution witness, which was challenged by Neelam Katara, saying that she was a materialwitness, and in dropping her, the prosecution...
fingerprint match. On May 6, 2004, the FBI arrested Mayfield as a materialwitness in connection with the Madrid attacks, and held him for two weeks,...
a hand-drawn map of downtown Oklahoma City. Nichols was held as a materialwitness to the bombing until he was charged on May 10. Investigators also combed...
misconduct; later she takes on the case of the controversial death of a materialwitness who had been in Brenda's custody. Often described as a stickler for...
The New Detectives on December 10, 2002, in episode 3 of season 8, "MaterialWitness." List of solved missing person cases "PEI Murdered Women 1989 - 2009"...
with a Windsor Locks police sergeant who had interviewed her as a materialwitness in a criminal investigation, initially resulting in the officer's firing...
Park Service. Retrieved 17 December 2019. L.A. Times, "Case Hinges on MaterialWitness", Lisa Gurion, September 26, 2004 S. Tamer Cavusgil; Gary Knight; John...
(Edward James Olmos) by sleeping with his assistant, an important materialwitness. Debra calls him into her office to tell him they can never be together...
Silent Witness is a British television drama. The following is a list of all episodes that have been broadcast across all television series, since the...
Malfavon while he tried to collect "taxes" from the gang. Pérez found a materialwitness who had blood on her dress, and she named four gang members from Temple...
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