Misrecognition of suspects is one of the main causes of arrest of innocent people in criminal cases. More than 80% of victims of this type of error are black men, as shown by research by the Public Defender’s Office of Rio de Janeiro, which is the state with the highest number of cases made public. The majority of the 65 defendants acquitted in the second instance due to procedural failures between January and June 2021 spent, on average, 1 year and 2 months behind bars.
Tiago, Paulo and Danillo shared their stories with the Reporting Pathsa journalistic program from TV Brasil. None of these young people had a criminal record, but their photos ended up in police station suspect albums. They were identified as perpetrators of crimes and unjustly imprisoned.
Tiago Vianna was acquitted in nine cases based on photo recognition – Photo: TV Brasil/Disclosure
In recent years, cases of unjust arrests have gained visibility in the media and on social networks. The understandings of the bodies of the justice system have been improved through contributions from the psychology of testimony.
Psychologist William Cecconello, coordinator of Cogjus, Teaching and Research Laboratory, based in Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul, explains that “memory is malleable and subject to failures that in everyday life do not have major implications, but that for the justice system are important.”
To ensure the preservation of the memory of victims of crimes, Resolution 484 of the National Council of Justice (CNJ), of 2022, stipulates rules so that recognition made at police stations is valid and, even so, considers that other evidence must corroborate the accusation .
“It is not possible for us to continue to allow the risk of taking someone convicted on the basis of such fragile evidence to prison”, says the minister of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) Rogério Schietti.
In an assessment of the first year of the rules in force, “the conclusion is that the resolution was not being fulfilled in the way it was intended”, said the Criminal Defense coordinator of the Public Defender’s Office of Rio de Janeiro, Lucia Helena Oliveira.
Last year, the Institute for the Defense of the Black Population (IDPN), which offers free legal assistance to black people in criminal cases, alone acted in 15 cases of mistaken recognition in Rio de Janeiro.
“There are many arbitrary things that happen throughout the process. We don’t know how the photo gets there. Recognitions are carried out by the police in a completely irregular manner. Even so, the Public Prosecutor’s Office requests arrest or conviction. And the judge corroborates these decisions”, explains Juliana Sanches, Legal Director at IDPN.
Social educator Danillo Félix was one of the victims of failed recognition defended by IDPN. Arrested in Niterói after being mistaken for a robber, he was cleared, among other reasons, because the victims told the court that they had been coerced by the police into recognizing him in the suspect list. Today, Danillo shares his painful experience to fight for young people who go through similar situations.
Danillo Félix talks about unjust imprisonment to help other victims of miscarriages of justice – Photo: TV Brasil/Disclosure
The family of Carlos Vitor Teixeira Guimarães, 24 years old, who has been in prison for more than a year, is trying to prove his innocence. Relatives claim that the victim’s description of the criminal in her statement does not match the characteristics of the nursing assistant student. “It makes no sense to arrest the boy for a photograph. Accuse the boy because he is black, because of the color of his skin?” asks grandmother Verônica Sousa Vieira.
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Paths of Reporting – Innocents in prison
Sunday, 5/5, at 10pm, at TV Brasil
Tags: Caminhos Reportagem tells stories people unjustly imprisoned
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