QUOTES OF THE DAY: "Perryman said he spent five days in jail before a judge released him with a GPS ankle monitor. He said it took months to clear his record with the help of a hired defense attorney. “I feel like I had to prove my innocence more than they had to prove I was a suspect, and the system is not supposed to work that way,” Perryman said. ACLU of Minnesota Legal Director Teresa Nelson said facial recognition technology is notorious for misidentifying people of color. “Studies of facial recognition technology show that Black people are up to 100 times more likely to be misidentified than white men. That rate is even worse for Indigenous people,” Nelson said."
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STORY: "In lawsuit, Minneapolis man says facial recognition tech led to his false arrest," by Reporter Matt Sepic, published by MPR News, om June 28, 2023.
GIST: "A Minneapolis man claims in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed Wednesday that authorities wrongfully jailed and charged him based on faulty facial recognition technology.
In September of 2021, Hennepin County prosecutors charged Kylese Perryman, 21, with a carjacking and the armed robbery of several women at a Mall of America parking ramp the following day.
Perryman's attorneys said that investigators using facial recognition technology falsely matched Perryman’s photo with security camera images of another young Black man allegedly seen shopping with the victims' credit cards at a Brooklyn Center Walmart soon after the robbery.
At news conference with Minnesota ACLU leaders, attorney Molly Jean Given said if prosecutors and Bloomington police had conducted even a basic investigation, they would have found overwhelming proof of Perryman’s innocence.
"While the suspects allegedly carjacked someone, Mr. Perryman was working the night shift at a Target warehouse. And like he did every time he worked that night shift, he clocked in and he clocked out. And he was clocked in when that car was stolen," Given said.
Given said Perryman was sleeping at the time of the mall robbery and was at a family member’s birthday party in Andover when the suspects took the victim’s credit cards to Walmart.
She added that Perryman is significantly taller and thinner than the suspect in the security video and has different tattoos.
Perryman said he spent five days in jail before a judge released him with a GPS ankle monitor.
He said it took months to clear his record with the help of a hired defense attorney.
“I feel like I had to prove my innocence more than they had to prove I was a suspect, and the system is not supposed to work that way,” Perryman said.
ACLU of Minnesota Legal Director Teresa Nelson said facial recognition technology is notorious for misidentifying people of color.
“Studies of facial recognition technology show that Black people are up to 100 times more likely to be misidentified than white men. That rate is even worse for Indigenous people,” Nelson said.
Spokespeople for Hennepin County and the city of Bloomington, which are both named as defendants, said they are unable to comment on pending litigation."
The entire story can be read at:
The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota and pro bono attorneys at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP filed Kylese Perryman v. City of Bloomington et al. on Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. The lawsuit against the city of Bloomington, several of its police including Detective Andrew Risdall, and Hennepin County alleges that law enforcement “carelessly and incorrectly identified him (Perryman) as another Black man,” arresting and detaining him without probable cause.
Law enforcement’s failures alleged in the suit include:
- Not conducting a photographic or in-person lineup.
- Not contacting any of the eyewitnesses to seek further identification.
- Not considering or investigating Perryman’s alibis including cell phone records, all of which showed him miles away when the crimes took place.
- Not noting that Perryman has tattoos on his forearm, while the suspect did not.
- Not comparing Perryman’s height, weight and features with photos of the suspect – who was about 5 inches shorter and noticeably heavier.
- Putting out an alert that he was “known to be armed and pistol whipped a victim,” despite no history of violent crime, putting him at risk for a dangerous encounter with police.
- Not asking to drop charges against Perryman for nearly two months, even though his defense attorney – who was left to investigate in law enforcement’s stead – repeatedly produced new evidence of his innocence.
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/47049136857587929
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices.
Lawyer Radha Natarajan;
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater’s attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, “Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it’s the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.”
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-1234880143/
