Facebook status update used as alibi in robbery case
Facebook has often played a part in getting people into trouble. But this is the first time that it’s been used to get someone out of trouble. It seems Facebook status updates are admissible as alibis.
According to The New York Times, Rodney Bradford was arrested on Sunday, Oct. 18 as a suspect in an armed robbery. Bradford claimed he was completely innocent of the crime and he had evidence to back that claim up. His alibi was that he’d been at his father’s apartment in Harlem at the time. But how to prove as much?
Luckily, Bradford had used the computer at his dad’s apartment, logged in to Facebook, and updated his status. According to Gothamist he wrote, “ON THE PHONE WITH THIS FAT CHICK……WHERER MY IHOP.” Which the NYT called “indecipherable street slang [...] gobbledygook to anyone besides Mr. Bradford” and translated as, “Where’s my pancakes.” OK then.
Bradford’s defense lawyer Robert Reuland informed the assistant DA about the Facebook status update and the DA contacted Facebook to verify the update was written from the location specified at the time specified. The social network was able to do just that and the charges were immediately dropped.
John Browning, a lawyer who studies social networking and the law, 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.
Maybe so, but while I don’t doubt Bradford is telling the truth, this case could result in Facebook status updates being planted as evidence of an alibi being true. It wouldn’t exactly be hard to have someone else signed into your Facebook account and active on the site while you are out doing whatever you want to do. If status updates are admissible as evidence so readily then what’s to stop this happening?
Joseph Pollini, teacher at the Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration at John Jay College, said:
With a username and password, anyone can input data in a Facebook page. Some of the brightest people on the Internet are teenagers. They know the Internet better than a lot of people. Why? Because they use it all the time. So they could develop an alibi. They watch television, the movies, there is a multitude of reasons why someone of that age would have the knowledge to do a crime like that.
What’s clear is that the more popular social networks become the more they are going to be used in cases of all sorts. We’ve already seen a burglar nabbed for updating his Facebook account from his victim’s house, and this latest case is the exact opposite.
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November 13th, 2009
Since this is now an acceptable alibi, we’ve detailed our plan for knocking over a liquor store while simultaneously making a Facebook update from a PC:
http://praetorianprefect.com/archives/2009/11/the-perfect-crime-the-perfect-alibi-my-facebook-status/