Robbery Suspect Cleared By Facebook Alibi

postermmxvicom writes "Rodney Bradford has been cleared of robbery charges because of a Facebook update. The defense was able to prove that the update was made from his father's house, 13 miles away from the crime committed one minute earlier. Lawyer John G. Browning said, 'This is the first case that I’m aware of in which a Facebook update has been used as alibi evidence. We are going to see more of that because of how prevalent social networking has become.' Surely, this must be media hype, since it would not be a difficult alibi to fake."

Comments

Re:Probably wasn't the case here..

[Anonymous Coward]

Or just SSH with your iPhone.

Sweet!

[d3ac0n]

So basically,

I can go commit any crime I want, as long as I use a remote desktop/VNC program to remote into my PC at home from my smart phone and post something to Facebook immediately afterward?

SWEET! Time to to rob that bank!

Re:Sweet!

[TheRaven64]

Or, for a lower tech solution, just get someone else to do it.

Re:Sweet!

[lena_10326]

Duct tape is lower tech. Are you saying you don't use duct tape?

Be careful with that answer.

HTTP Proxy? VPN Tunnel?

[Manip]

I love how ignorant of technology the legal profession is.

Take this case for example, nobody stopped to consider that he might have setup a HTTP proxy, VPN tunnel, or some other routing service? Why? Because neither the defence nor prosecution understand what they're talking about.

I would really like to see legal reforms that create new "specialist" branches of experts who exist only to explain the significance of particular areas to the court without actually taking sides in cases (e.g. Technology, Science, High-End Accounting, etc).

It is kind of funny, the lawyers spend TONS of time worrying that the jury won't understand the law. But they never stop to consider that the lawyers won't understand the evidence.

Re:HTTP Proxy? VPN Tunnel?

[autocracy]

Most evidence, with enough effort, can be faked. We usually call those conspiracies.

It would be a great amount of effort for a small robbery to perform this task and to get the corroborating evidence. There is very reasonable doubt that he committed the crime.

Re:HTTP Proxy? VPN Tunnel?

[whoda]

They did consider VPN's and Proxies and fairies too.
They also had witnesses, aka Real People, who also testified he was at his fathers house.
It was corroborating evidence, not the piece the case hinged on.

Once again, Facebook verified what multiple REAL PEOPLE were telling the cops. It wasn't the only piece of evidence.

You love how ignorant people are of the legal profession, I love how people like you are so pompous and know-it-all's they can't even read the article.

Re:HTTP Proxy? VPN Tunnel?

[bumburumbi]

Well, it is within the realm of the possible that somebody sat down and applied Occams razor to the possible scenarios: The first scenario involves this bloke (1) planning to rob somebody, (2) setting up a proxy or vpn service and (3) some people conspiring to give false evidence. The second scenario: The bloke was at home and nobody lied.

Re:HTTP Proxy? VPN Tunnel?

[at_slashdot]

I posted this in another reply but I see a common misunderstanding: The point is that was a type of crime that was not likely to be premeditated, nor his status update looked like a way to construct an alibi, any crime that can assumed to be premeditated would not be excused by such an alibi.

There's no "lack of understanding of the technology" involved here, is your lack of understanding of the circumstances.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Double-edged sword.

[schon]

Now, someone was aquitted based on their IP address.

No, someone was aquitted based on the IP address their account was used from. There is a distinct difference.

In this case, there is a username and password that is used to identify someone, not just an IP address.

It's distinctly possible that he gave his account information to someone else, but there were witnesses to corroborate the alibi as well.

VPN is too complicated

[berlindx]

Couldn't you just have a friend login to your facebook profile and post a update while you're out committing crimes?

Presumption of innocence

[Dachannien]

One thing that some folks have forgotten here is that the guy was presumed innocent until the prosecution could prove him guilty. If there's evidence from Facebook indicating that he updated his status, then the prosecution would need to show that the guy was using a proxy/tunnel/whatever, or that he had someone else post for him, etc. Otherwise, it provides a reasonable doubt as to whether he was even at the scene of the crime.

Re:Presumption of innocence

[hazem]

This really just shows how weak the prosecution's case was. I suspect they locked him up in Rikers for 12 days to hopefully get him to just give up and plead guilty to a lesser charge. That way they get a conviction, the city is "tough on crime", and they didn't actually have to make the effort of putting together an actual case in front of a judge and jury.

When they can make your life miserable until you confess, there's no need for a presumption of innocence. This guy got lucky that he had eye witnesses and technological records that supported his innocence.

Re:Probably wasn't the case here..

[Nursie]

Epic fail yourself, they can trace where your iPhone was, no need to care about where that facebook update appeared to come from then.

Re:Not how evidence works

[canajin56]

The prosecutors job is to prove beyond all reasonable doubt. If he contends a piece of evidence is invalid, he has to prove it is so beyond all reasonable doubt. You're the one who doesn't understand. He would have had to go up there and contend that "All of the other guests lied about him being there, and on top of that, he had one of them leave a facebook message in order to exonerate him, and yes, that seems to me a reasonable setup prior to a fucking MUGGING." To repeat. If you're charged with a crime, and your father and other family members all swear you were with them, that's a tenuous alibi, they might by lying to cover you. If somebody from your father's house was updating facebook just minutes prior to the crime, that means either he's not lying, or it means he was engaged with a conspiracy prior to the crime. That is, the accused planned it all out prior to mugging some fucking strangers in his own apartment complex! That's absurd. On top of this...the prosecutor refuses to comment on what evidence there was. There probably wasn't any, they just grabbed the guy who "looked most guilty" when they were canvasing the neighbors, and hoped he'd be too poor to fight it. He lived in the projects, after all. "He's guilty of something, might as well be this."

Re:Probably wasn't the case here..

[amorsen]

Flight mode. Very appropriately named, actually.