Reply #49: Um, Mathis testified against her in court--he was a pros, witness who testified about her lying

[msanthrope]

about being pregnant....because Canty, in the weeks before the murder told him she was pregnant.

Seriously, why would the defense call him in the penalty phase? How would it have been helpful to call the DEA agent she lied to? You realize that had the defense called him, the prosecution could have, and would have, opened up a whole new can of worms regarding just how Canty became a DEA informant. DEA informants don't become such out of the goodness of their hearts--they become such because the DEA has something on them.

Tell me, how would opening that mess--rightfully excluded in the guilt phase--have possibly helped Canty?

Further, of course no DEA agent is gonna admit that they 'knew' they were using a murderer as an informant. A first-year law student would take about 10 seconds to show a jury just how self-serving the statement "I would not have employed someone like Linda as a CI if I had felt they were capable of intentionally murdering someone," is. It's to Mathis' benefit to claim he didn't know she was capable of murder--after all, what the heck else is he gonna say?