WASHINGTON The Supreme Court has made it harder for defendants to keep their comments to jailhouse informants from being used against them at trial.
The justices, by a 7-2 vote, said a defendant's statement to an informant can be used to poke holes in trial testimony, even if it was elicited in violation of the Constitution.
Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the court's opinion, which said prosecutors could not use the informant to prove their case, but only to impeach inconsistent testimony.
Kansas' high court had ruled that a defendant's statement to an informant could not be used at all. The case arose after Donnie Ray Ventris was convicted of aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery. Police put an informant in his cell before the trial, and Ventris confessed to him.