Facebook status update corroborates alibi

By: Amelio The · November 12, 2009 · Filed Under Criminal Law, Evidence · Add Comment

Popular social networking sites such as Facebook have been the focus of legal attention for issues of privacy, and for their increasing use as evidence against parties in legal matters. Many criminal defendants and parties to divorce proceedings have been considerate enough to record their misdeeds for posterity, and savvy prosecutors and divorce attorneys have been keen enough to try to use them.

One recent incident stands in stark contrast: using Facebook helped one New York teen to clear his name by corroborating a much needed alibi. Rodney Bradford, 19, was arrested as a suspect in a robbery case. The district attorney found his alibi – his parents claimed he was at home with them – dubious, up until Rodney’s attorney pointed out this Facebook status update made near the time of the robbery:

“Where’s my pancakes? Oct. 17, at 11:49 a.m.”

Charges were dropped after Facebook confirmed the status update was made from a computer located at Rodney’s father’s apartment.

Reported in NY Times Local for Fort Green

Post tags: alibi, Evidence, facebook, robbery, Rodney Bradford

Another evidence flop in a security certificate case

By: Law is Cool · October 22, 2009 · Filed Under Civil Rights, Immigration Law · Add Comment

Judge orders CSIS to hand over file

Bill Curry writes for the Globe:

The Federal Court is ordering Canada’s spy agency to disclose a second human source in the Mohamed Harket case, an exceptional decision taken after finding the Canadian Security Intelligence Service “filtered” evidence and failed to tell the court that a first key source had failed a polygraph test.

Post tags: CSIS, Evidence, Federal Court, Justice Simon Noel, Mohamed Harkat, polygraph, secret evidence, security certificates

Hypnosis evidence and murder

By: Law is Cool · August 14, 2009 · Filed Under Criminal Law, Evidence · Add Comment

Man admits committing 1992 murder

A former Canada Post supervisor admitted today to the 1992 killing of his girlfriend, two years after the Supreme Court of Canada threw out his conviction in a landmark decision because key evidence was obtained through hypnosis.

Post tags: 1992, canada post, conviction, Evidence, hypnosis, murder, SCC, Stephen Trochym, supreme court, Supreme Court of Canada, trial

Major criminal law Charter cases to be released Friday: Grant, Suberu, Harrison

By: Lawrence Gridin · July 14, 2009 · Filed Under Criminal Law · Add Comment

I have huge news for anyone interested in criminal law (and indeed, many accused persons).

After years of anticipation, the Supreme Court of Canada is finally set to release some of the most important criminal law Charter of Rights decisions since the Charter was introduced. This will have implications across Canada for thousands of criminal cases currently before the courts.

According to the latest bulletin, decisions in the following cases will be released on Friday, July 17, 2009:

Musibau Suberu v. Her Majesty the Queen (Crim.) (Ont.) (31912)
Donnohue Grant v. Her Majesty the Queen (Crim.) (Ont.) (31892)
Curtis Shepherd v. Her Majesty the Queen (Crim.) (Sask.) (32037)
Bradley Harrison v. Her Majesty the Queen (Crim.) (Ont.) (32487)

These cases promise to redefine the way that evidence is excluded from a criminal trial after a Charter breach has been found. The application of Charter, s. 24(2), and specifically the test for whether the adminstration of justice would be brought into disrepute by the admission of the evidence, is expected to be significantly different after Friday. The old test in R. v. Collins, [1987] 1 S.C.R. 265 was certainly overdue for a review after over twenty years of application and modification by trial and appellate courts.

Summaries of the four cases and the issues can be found here.