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CNN Saturday Morning News

Ask CNN: What is a Material Witness?

Aired November 10, 2001 - 08:23   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ANNOUNCER: Jane Schalnat from Round Rock, Texas asks: "There are individuals being held as material witnesses regarding the terrorist attacks. What is a material witness?"

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: A material witness is someone who has very important information for a criminal investigation. As you can imagine, what constitutes important information or material information is in the eyes of the beholder. Unfortunately, the law is not always filled with bright lines and finite definitions, but require people to weigh the facts presented and exercise good judgment.

Some issues of material witnesses are obvious. For instance, an eyewitness to a murder would be a material witness in everyone's mind. But there are close cases when what is material information to one judge may not be material to another. Two people may disagree whether an apartment neighbor to a hijacker is a material witness or not. Note that not all material witnesses can be detained. In order to detain a material witness, a prosecutor must persuade a judge that the witness not only has information that is material or important to a criminal investigation, but that if the person is not detained, the person is likely to flee and not be available to the ongoing investigation.

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