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77 Wash. U. L. Q. 249 (1999)
Tampering with Witness Tampering: Resolving the Quandary Surrounding 18 U.S.C. 1503, 1512

handle is hein.journals/walq77 and id is 259 raw text is: TAMPERING WITH WITNESS TAMPERING: RESOLVING THE QUANDARY SURROUNDING 18 U.S.C. §§ 1503, 1512 I. INTRODUCTION Jason was a nineteen year old college sophomore with a bright future. In high school, Jason consistently made the Honor Roll, lettered in three varsity sports, and was extremely popular with both his classmates and teachers. Jason made the transition to college with relative ease. He maintained a 4.0 grade point average throughout his freshman year and participated in several extracurricular activities. Jason played virtually every intramural sport, became friends with a variety of new people, and began dating a very nice girl. His sophomore year promised to be just as exciting as the first year. But everything changed when Jason was arrested and charged with distribution of a controlled substance.' A drug informant identified Jason as the person who sold him the drugs. Jason maintained that he had never taken drugs, much less sold them to someone else. Jason's parents, Jim and Diane, believed their son did not sell drugs. He had never been in any sort of trouble in the past. They spoke to him regularly on the phone and saw him about once every three weeks. Jason was the same bright, energetic young man he had always been. Nothing indicated to his parents that he used or distributed drugs. Jim and Diane believed that this was an incredible case of mistaken identity. Jason contended that he had been at a college party the night of the alleged drug transaction. Jason's girlfriend had gone home that weekend and was not with him, and unfortunately none of the partygoers could place Jason at the party at the time of the drug transaction. One of Jason's friends, Brian, told the authorities he remembered seeing Jason at the party around 9:30 p.m. but could not remember seeing him there any later. After opening arguments in Jason's trial, it became apparent that the prosecution would rely heavily on the identification by the drug informant and the fact that Jason had no one to corroborate his alibi. Jim and Diane flew into a panic, fearing that their only son would spend years in a federal prison, leaving his bright future in shambles. In a devoted, but misguided, attempt to save their son, Jim and 1. Federal law prohibits the distribution of a controlled substance under 21 U.S.C. § 841 (1994), which provides that it shall be unlawful for any person knowingly or intentionally-i) to manufacture, distribute, or dispense, or possess with intent to manufacture, distribute, or dispense, a controlled substance.