By Mrs. Eileen Hunter — about the author.
March 29, 2014: Christopher Wiggins tells a defense investigator that Tony Hunter never confessed to him — that he was promised a sentence reduction that was not honored — and that he would testify to this at a hearing, though he would not sign an affidavit for fear of perjury exposure. (Exhibit I-3 to the 2022 application.)
July 2022: Wiggins tells a defense investigator that in 2001, officers first asked him to wear a wire to entrap Mr. Hunter; he refused. They then asked him to say he heard a confession — and he agreed. He said he “has carried guilt about lying in his testimony against Tony Hunter” ever since. (Recounted in the Declaration of Robert M. Bloom ¶ 17, transcribed here; the Wiggins file.)
The other half, stated plainly: these are reported statements to defense investigators — Wiggins has not sworn to them, and recantations are treated cautiously by courts for good reason. That is an argument for testing them at an evidentiary hearing, which no court has held. The applications presenting them were denied. (Procedural history.)
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