Heard this crazy story of American "justice" on the Criminal podcast.
A man is arrested for a crime cos the police used AI facial recognition. The man has a solid alibi: he was in hospital cos his child was being born.
6 months later, he pleads guilty. Why? He's been locked up all this time, awaiting trial. The only way he gets to go home to his new baby is to admit to a crime he didn't commit.
This is that craziness @mekkaokereke keeps telling us about.
thisiscriminal.com/episode-371…
Episode 371: That’s Not Me (7.10.2026)
Porcha Woodruff was eight months pregnant when she was arrested by police one morning at her home in Detroit. When she spoke with a detective at the police station hours later, she asked them, “Why am I here?”thisiscriminal (Criminal)
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Lonnie Rutes
in reply to David Njoku • • •David Njoku
in reply to Lonnie Rutes • • •David Njoku
in reply to David Njoku • • •To be completely fair to America, I have no idea if the same sort of thing¹ would happen in the UK. I know it happens in Nigeria.
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¹ spending months locked up while awaiting trial
The Sleight Doctor 🃏🍉
in reply to David Njoku • • •Reform UK have explicitly said they'll detain folks while they assess their legal status, just like ICE in the USA. That's literally a party pledge.
So we're also creeping towards fascism.
MiaK 🏴 🇵🇸
in reply to The Sleight Doctor 🃏🍉 • • •@ApostateEnglishman Dunno if you've been paying attention, but we're arresting people under terrorism legislation for holding cardboard signs, and shops are using cameras to immediately notify police if it "recognises" (the tech makes tons of mistakes) someone who may have previously committed a crime. Not while they're actually committing a crime. Just maybe they might be a person who could have done some time in the past.
We're already *at* fascism.
Crowsinger
in reply to David Njoku • • •Roberto von Archimboldi
in reply to David Njoku • • •people can be locked up for months (or years) before trial. There are huge delays in the courts. There are a number of safeguards. How well they work in practice, I don't know. The big one is the presumption of liberty. You need there to be good reason, normally flight risk, risk of harm to others or risk of reoffending, to lock someone up pre-trial. Even then, generally (murder and some repeat violent offensives are the exception) you would normally explore bail conditions before locking up someone pre-trial. The CPS has some helpful guidence if you are interested. cps.gov.uk/prosecution-guidanc…
Where the defence case is strong, the risk of flight, at least, is considered lower because the accused has good reason to stand trial and vice versa.
If you are in custody post charge, you have to be brought before the magistrates for a bail hearing at the next sitting (if I remember). If you are remanded in custody, there is a 56 day time limit for trial to start in the magistrates and half a year (normally) for crown court cases.
cps.gov.uk/prosecution-guidanc…
How well this works in practice, I know not. I think though that the big difference between here and the US is that over there, at least in many states, you have to put up a bail bond. That is not the case here. Black people in the US are disproportionately affected because the communities are disproportionately poorer. That, as you know, is a legacy of slavery, reconstruction, the New Deal, the War on Drugs, the sub-prime mortgage scandal and subsequent bail out and the ongoing deliberate exclusion of black people from access to wealth, cf school zoning rules and so on
Bail | The Crown Prosecution Service
www.cps.gov.ukDavid Njoku
in reply to Roberto von Archimboldi • • •Helidonkey
in reply to David Njoku • • •Ben. No, not that one.
in reply to David Njoku • • •Bail: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
LastWeekTonight (YouTube)max oakland
in reply to David Njoku • • •knott impressed with your BS
in reply to David Njoku • • •mekka okereke reshared this.
Bruce Heerssen
in reply to knott impressed with your BS • • •@wyatt_h_knott
Yeah, it was a bad decision for a whole host of reasons. But can you really blame him? He's suffering every day in jail, and he can't see his newborn or support his family while he's in there.
And you know prosecutors and perhaps even his court appointed defense attorney are telling him sweet sounding lies about how a guilty plea is the best way out.
knott impressed with your BS
in reply to Bruce Heerssen • • •@bruce It only makes sense if you can't prove your innocence. When I took a plea, it was because they had charged me with a bunch of stuff I hadn't done, but weren't going to let me go. So I had to plead to the thing I had actually done, which was a misdemeanor, much better than the felonies they tried to charge me with.
It's obviously case by case, but I still think it was a bad decision forced upon him.
George B
in reply to knott impressed with your BS • • •I think the big argument here is, if it was forced upon him, how much can it be referred to as a decision?
Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to George B • •@George B @Bruce Heerssen @wy knott @mekka okereke @David Njoku I have a family member who was wrongfully convicted of a crime* and sentenced to several years in prison. After a few months in prison, they offered to transfer him to a nicer one in exchange for signing papers waiving his right to ever appeal. Given the conditions where he was, I don't blame him for signing them.
Mind you, this is the Canadian system, not the US. He has since served his sentence and been granted a pardon.
* Even the prosecutor expressed surprise at the verdict.
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Annelies
in reply to knott impressed with your BS • • •@davidnjoku @mekkaokereke
knott impressed with your BS
in reply to Annelies • • •@akamran Yeah, except you're talking to someone who has actually been arrested, charged with crimes they didn't commit, had to take a plea deal, and did time.
You're also talking to a guy who got 60% of his assets back in a forfeiture case with falsified charges, because I refused to plead and fought the case.
I'm well aware of how it goes.
Andres
in reply to knott impressed with your BS • • •@wyatt_h_knott Winning a lawsuit won't get you back missing out on the first year of watching your kid grow up.
The legal system is also never a guarantee. I've lost in civil hearings despite having what should have been a slam-dunk case.
Ben Rosengart
in reply to knott impressed with your BS • • •Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to David Njoku • •@David Njoku @mekka okereke I don't know if this is a sunk cost fallacy thing on the part of the police,* or something more sinister. Honestly, either answer seems plausible.
* I imagine this facial recognition garbage didn't come cheap.
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mekka okereke, J. R. DePriest :EA DATA. SF:, Sofia from nowhere, Mr. Scam Likely, salix sericea (@Ripple13216) and chinstonwurchill like this.
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db Slava Ukraini
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe • • •Jenny
in reply to David Njoku • • •decapitae
in reply to David Njoku • • •DonCC
in reply to David Njoku • • •Tijgertje1987
in reply to David Njoku • • •Noortje Van Leeuwen
in reply to David Njoku • • •this...
It happened before, not with Ai, mind you, but with some guys arrested fof a crime they did not commit.
They had to plead guilty in order to get a pardon deal....
mekka okereke
in reply to Noortje Van Leeuwen • • •Not just "has happened before." This is most convictions in the United States.🤷🏿♂️
Arrest an innocent Black person too poor to make bail. Charge them with anything. They know that their life will be ruined if they are in jail for a year trying to prove their innocence. They know that they will be brutalized and assaulted in jail for a year, and lose custody of their children, have their credit destroyed, lose their house or apartment, and worse.
Offer them the opportunity to plead guilty and go home now. Most will just take it.
This is 95% of convictions in the USA. Not a typo. Ninety-five percent of criminal convictions are plea deals.
Noortje Van Leeuwen
in reply to mekka okereke • • •I am not that versed in USA, justice, i recall a case that i saw a documentary about.
So thank you for this information.
David Njoku
in reply to mekka okereke • • •delve ✨
in reply to David Njoku • • •