Late last month, two armed men held up a man in Farragut Houses in Brooklyn, New York. During an ID parade, he victim claimed that he recognised 19-year-old Rodney Bradford as one of the robberse. As a result of this, Rodney Bradford was held at the Rikers Island jail facility for 12 days.

The prosecutors subsequently dropped the charges and Rodney Bradford has to thank the assistance of the social networking site Facebook®, which was used as an electronic witness in the courtroom.

During the time of the robbery, Rodney Bradford had updated his Facebook® status to “Where My IHOP”, at his father’s apartment in Harlem, which is 13 miles away from the crime scene. The Facebook® status was referring to his pregnant girlfriend who wanted pancakes from the International House of Pancakes (IHOP) at the time.

Defence lawyers also used several family members as witnesses who stated that Rodney Bradford was present with them at his father’s apartment.

This is the first time that defence lawyers have used Facebook® to aver innocence of a crime in a New York courtroom.

– Dominic Bell