Are Communications Records of Americans Retained Forever? (seattletimes.com)

An Illinois prosecutor announced Friday that a Seattle man was wrongly convicted in 2012 of the abduction and murder of a 7-year-old girl in 1957, reports the Seattle Times. It was believed to be the nation's oldest cold case, but reader Trachman raises an interesting concern: He finally got an an alibi, which was a telephone call which he made in 1957. While it surely is a good thing that an innocence has been proven, the case is also an evidence that American's communication records are retained infinitely.

Comments

Not a new document

[mpoulton]

My understanding from reading several articles on this case is that the phone call alibi was investigated at the time and those records were part of the original case file. The change is in the testimony and credibility of witnesses who had previously undermined that alibi. They did not just now uncover records of a phone call from 1957. This does not answer the question of what records are retained by who and for how long.

Re:Not a new document

[Excelcia]

Correct. The telephone records were part of the case records - it is those case records which have been preserved. What changed was information that the crime could have been committed earlier, which if true, would have rendered the telephone call irrelevant as an alibi. When the information that the crime was committed earlier was discredited, the phone records in the case file became relevant to him again.

This is completely not a case of phone records being retained indefinitely.

Re:I'm more surprised

[xous]

It was a collect call.

Businesses that don't record what monies are owed by a client don't last too long.