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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.
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.
I am a geek attorney, but not your geek attorney unless you've already retained me. This is not legal advice.
It was a collect call.
Businesses that don't record what monies are owed by a client don't last too long.
What's really bothersome is not that they were collecting the data but that he had to prove his innocence instead of the State having to prove his guilt. It's a disturbing trend where we're proving innocence as opposed to relying on the State to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt. (Or more likely than not, in the case of civil matters.)
As a defendant, you should never have to prove your innocence. The verbiage might seem trivial but it's the underlying concept, and how important it is, that makes me alarmed. Not that long ago, I had a conversation on /. where the person thought it was outdated and "stupid" that it was better for ten guilty people to go free than one innocent person be jailed.
Sadly, I'm not even remotely kidding about that conversation. I'm not exaggerating and it is not hyperbole. They not only stated that but they made comments that supported that sentiment - before and since. They're not alone, they had people who openly agreed with them. I should not have to prove that I'm innocent. Not at all. Needing to find an alibi, from that many years ago, is crazy. Given the time that has passed, the case should have not been prosecuted unless it was so air-tight that an alibi would not have made a difference. That's awfully close to, if not being past, the line where one is proving innocence.
The fact that the records are kept is secondary to that - and kind of disturbing but there's not much we can do about it unless we wish to enact legislation to prohibit or require data retention. Right now, they're free to retain those records. It'd also be a bit difficult to ensure records are not kept.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
A long, long time ago (back when the Sun was new enough to still have a price-tag hanging off the side), I had a phone that had had the rotary section removed. It was meant for inbound calls only. For one reason or another, I ended up needing a phone for a short while and needed to make outbound calls. With a little practice, you could press the button to mimic pulse-dialing and actually make outbound calls on that phone. I kept it around, after no longer needing it for that purpose, just as a novelty.
This was the 1970s and the phones all came from the telephone company back then. Also, we didn't have nearly as many amusements as we have today. Being able to dial out just by pressing the receiver button repeatedly was a good party trick - it was a simpler time.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."