Paulo Alberto da Silva Costa was having a daily day at work as a doorman in Rio de Janeiro when he was arrested in 2020. It was solely then that he discovered he was a suspect in 62 crimes: nearly all had been thefts, however there have been additionally two murder costs. Costa spent three years behind bars earlier than Brazil’s supreme court docket recognised that it had all been a mistake.
There was one widespread component: each case relied solely on the truth that a witness or sufferer had been proven {a photograph} of Costa, and recognized him because the alleged perpetrator.
Such procedures have lengthy been identified to replicate racial biases and result in miscarriages of justice, however they’re nonetheless generally utilized by Brazilian police, and have led to wrongful convictions of numerous folks, notably Black folks comparable to Costa. The pictures police used of him had been selfies taken from his Fb profile, and to at the present time, it stays unclear how footage of a person with none felony report ended up in a so-called “suspect album”.
“What they did to me was cowardice. They destroyed my life as a result of I’m Black and poor,” mentioned Costa, 37, who lives in Belford Roxo, an impoverished metropolis on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.
Though the sheer variety of accusations makes his case stand out, it’s removed from unusual in Brazil’s judicial system. Final Might, a Black man sentenced to 170 years in jail after a conviction based mostly on picture identification was launched after spending 12 years behind bars. In 2023 alone, the supreme court docket overturned 377 wrongful convictions or arrests the place the only proof was “recognition” by victims, both by way of images or in individual.
Regardless of being extraordinarily widespread in police stations, suspect albums are unregulated. They vary from bodily notebooks to digital collections and even circumstances the place officers ship a suspect’s {photograph} on to the sufferer through WhatsApp.
There are additionally no guidelines on what photos will be included in such collections. “There are law enforcement officials who monitor social media, in search of younger folks they suppose are violent and harmful, amassing these pictures and including them to suspect albums,” mentioned Pablo Nunes, a political scientist and coordinator of the Centre for Safety and Citizenship Research.
Two years in the past, a photograph of the US actor Michael B Jordan was included in a single such album in Ceará state. The police later admitted it was a mistake.
Along with utilizing harmless folks, one other downside with this technique is that “research present that human reminiscence is fallible and extremely malleable,” mentioned Janaína Matida, a professor at IDP legislation faculty and adviser to a supreme court docket justice. “Reminiscence can play tips on us, so we can’t enable the justice system to be contaminated by these errors,” she added.
In 2022, the Nationwide Council of Justice issued a decision setting pointers for a way picture recognition ought to be used within the justice system, together with that it can’t function sole proof and {that a} suspect must not ever be offered alone however at all times in a lineup alongside others who resemble them.
“Police additionally want to research extra completely earlier than continuing with recognition: for instance, by requesting footage from public cameras or verifying telephone GPS information, which they hardly ever do. As an alternative, they rush into recognition and anticipate the sufferer or witness to choose a suspect to allow them to rapidly shut the investigation,” Matida mentioned.
Though the decision marked a modest step ahead, Lucia Helena de Oliveira, Costa’s defence lawyer, says the issue persists. “There are additionally circumstances of people that had been wrongfully convicted earlier than the rules had been set and who stay incarcerated,” mentioned Oliveira, head of felony defence at Rio’s public defender’s workplace.
Almost all of the accusations towards Costa originated from the identical police station, and he was by no means summoned to testify or current alibis to show his innocence.
A thorough assessment of every cost made by the Instituto de Defesa do Direito de Defesa concluded that there was just about no investigation: police would present Costa’s picture to a sufferer or witness, who would “recognise” him, and he could be charged.
And though the 2023 supreme court docket ruling freed him from custody, it didn’t robotically clear Costa of all 62 costs. As an alternative, his defence staff has been compelled to file appeals for every case; 10 nonetheless stay pending. “I hope at some point I can inform him that it’s throughout and that he can transfer on together with his life,” she mentioned.
In the meantime, Costa – a father of a 12-year-old boy and a six-year-old lady – nonetheless can’t discover a job. “Who’s going to rent somebody who always wants day off work to attend court docket hearings?” he mentioned. “I can’t have a traditional life. And within the Brazil we dwell in, I’m afraid I’d die earlier than I see the top of those circumstances towards me.”
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