State v. Harris

This case concerns the exercise of the informer privilege where the informer for the State is a participant in the crime charged against the defendant. The principal question presented is whether the defendant is entitled to have disclosure of the identity and whereabouts of the informer, when the court neither knows nor takes any steps to ascertain whether knowledge of the informer's identity would be relevant and helpful to the defense.

Appellant James L. Harris was charged with delivery of a controlled substance, tried, and convicted in the Chelan *147County Superior Court. The events leading…