Janet CollinsA Facebook Alibi
November 12th 2009 23:17
Can Facebook prove your innocence? Maybe not but it certainly helped 19 year old Rodney Bradford from New York in the USA. Bradford had criminal charges for robbery dropped because, as his defence lawyer pointed out, he was busy social networking at the time of the crime.
It is believed to be the first time a social networking site has been used as an alibi, despite the fact some of the sites have been used extensively to actually prove guilt.
Bradford’s lawyer used his entry on his Facebook page “Where’s my pancakes” to prove he couldn’t have mugged a person at gunpoint because at the time he was online. There were some checks done by police to establish that the entry was made from his own computer but prosecutors and legal experts say it really isn’t enough.
All anyone has to do, they say, is have someone log on using their login and password so it does not constitute any real evidence that a suspect is online and can’t be placed at the scene of the crime.
The information on social networking sites has had a lot of discussion for some time now. Employees losing jobs because of things they have typed into social networking sites has been a contentious issue and employers have been criticised for invading employees’ social time. So too has a lot been written about applicants failing to be appointed for jobs after prospective employers or recruiters have researched their online sites.
In America, it has even been said that these sites provide invaluable information to lawyers about the personal information and background of trial jurors as well.
In Australia not so long ago, the Facebook site was used to trace a few home loan defaulters who had absconded and permission was granted for the lawyers to notify them online about the legal papers being served on them.
Rodney Bradford’s lawyers may have been able to use his Facebook site to get him off the hook, but it really is so difficult to prove that the activities on any particular site are really being carried out by the person who owns it. In Bradford’s case, there was probably a little more information than that and it would be really hard to imagine that this case will set off a whole new trend in social networking alibis.
Sourced: www.smh.com.au; www.nytimes.com
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