Paulo Alberto da Silva Costa was having a regular day at work as a doorman in Rio de Janeiro when he was arrested in 2020. It was only then that he learned he was a suspect in 62 crimes: almost all were thefts, but there were also two homicide charges. Costa spent three years behind bars before Brazil’s supreme court recognised that it had all been a mistake.
There was one common element: every case relied solely on the fact that a witness or victim had been shown a photograph of Costa, and identified him as the alleged perpetrator.
Such procedures have long been known to reflect racial biases and lead to miscarriages of justice, but they are still commonly used by Brazilian police, and have led to wrongful convictions of countless people, particularly Black people such as Costa. The photos police used of him were selfies taken from his Facebook profile, and to this day, it remains unclear how pictures of a man without any criminal record ended up in a so-called “suspect album”.
“What they did to me was cowardice. They destroyed my life because I’m Black and poor,” said Costa, 37, who lives in Belford Roxo, an impoverished city on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.
Although the sheer number of accusations makes his case stand out, it is far from uncommon in Brazil’s judicial system. Last May, a Black man sentenced to 170 years in prison after a conviction based on photo identification was released after spending 12 years behind bars. In 2023 alone, the supreme court overturned 377 wrongful convictions or arrests where the sole evidence was “recognition” by victims, either through photographs or in person.
Despite being extremely common in police stations, suspect albums are unregulated. They range from physical notebooks to digital collections or even cases where officers send a suspect’s photograph directly to the victim via WhatsApp.
There are also no rules on what images can be included in such collections. “There are police officers who monitor social media, looking for young people they think are violent and dangerous, collecting these photos and adding them to suspect albums,” said Pablo Nunes, a political scientist and coordinator of the Centre for Security and Citizenship Studies.
Two years ago, a photo of the US actor Michael B Jordan was included in one such album in Ceará state. The police later admitted it was a mistake.
In addition to using innocent people, another problem with this method is that “studies show that human memory is fallible and highly malleable,” said Janaína Matida, a professor at IDP law school and adviser to a supreme court justice. “Memory can play tricks on us, so we cannot allow the justice system to be contaminated by these errors,” she added.
In 2022, the National Council of Justice issued a resolution setting guidelines for how photo recognition should be used in the justice system, including that it cannot serve as sole evidence and that a suspect must never be presented alone but always in a lineup alongside others who resemble them.
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“Police also need to investigate more thoroughly before proceeding with recognition: for example, by requesting footage from public cameras or verifying phone GPS data, which they rarely do. Instead, they rush into recognition and expect the victim or witness to pick a suspect so they can quickly close the investigation,” Matida said.
Although the resolution marked a modest step forward, Lucia Helena de Oliveira, Costa’s defence lawyer, says the problem persists. “There are also cases of people who were wrongfully convicted before the guidelines were set and who remain incarcerated,” said Oliveira, head of criminal defence at Rio’s public defender’s office.
Nearly all the accusations against Costa originated from the same police station, and he was never summoned to testify or present alibis to prove his innocence.
A thorough review of each charge made by the Instituto de Defesa do Direito de Defesa concluded that there was virtually no investigation: police would show Costa’s photo to a victim or witness, who would “recognise” him, and he would be charged.
And although the 2023 supreme court ruling freed him from custody, it did not automatically clear Costa of all 62 charges. Instead, his defence team has been forced to file appeals for each case; 10 still remain pending. “I hope one day I can tell him that it’s all over and that he can move on with his life,” she said.
Meanwhile, Costa – a father of a 12-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl – still cannot find a job. “Who’s going to hire someone who constantly needs time off work to attend court hearings?” he said. “I can’t have a normal life. And in the Brazil we live in, I’m afraid I might die before I see the end of these cases against me.”