Indianapolis Criminal Defense Law Blog

One of the most surprising things you might hear after being charged for a crime you didn’t commit is that someone saw you do it. How could that be possible? If you were walking out of a store when someone else was robbing it, or if you were miles away, how could someone say they’d seen you?

The fact is that eyewitness testimony is often completely bogus. Scientists and legal professionals have known for years that it can go horribly wrong. But prosecutors still make heavy use of it, largely because it’s effective. It might not be good evidence, but it’s the sort of evidence that can wow a jury.

You don’t need to commit a fraud to find yourself under investigation for one. You might have made a billing mistake or misunderstood the terms of a contract. Maybe you decided to buy stock in your company at just the wrong time. Or perhaps someone in your office was committing fraud, but it wasn’t you.

No matter why you find yourself under investigation, you want to understand what the investigators are trying to do. Most fraud charges require proof of intent, so the investigators will likely be looking for proof of your intentions. Now, you might think that should clear you. After all, it’s reasonable to expect no one could find proof you intended something you never intended. But that’s not necessarily the case.

Many science fiction movies offer visions of dystopian futures. The scariest ones often look calm and happy on the outside. That appearance is deceiving, as the people in those futures are often completely controlled and constantly monitored.

Even scarier? That future might already be here. According to New York magazine, the United States is deeply invested in facial recognition technologies that can identify us with 99.8% accuracy. If your face is in a database, the cameras know who you are. So do the agencies behind them. And there are legal concerns tied to this form of information gathering and storage.

What do you get when you combine cameras and text messages? The answer, it appears, is sexting. Sexting is everywhere. And it can present real dangers for those who aren’t careful.

Fox news recently reported the results of a sexting survey. It found that people of all ages had sent nude photos of themselves via texts and other instant messages. But the numbers rose sharply as the ages dropped. According to the study, 37% of adults ages 22 to 38 had sexted. So had 40% of everyone ages 18 to 22. What about teens? The survey didn’t say.