{"id":1157,"date":"2007-07-17T06:50:22","date_gmt":"2007-07-16T07:56:15","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-07-16T07:56:15","slug":"en-US","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=1157","title":{"rendered":"NY Times: Cellphone call location data common investigative technique"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NY Times reports today on the use of cellphone location data, routinely kept by cellphone provider computers, to link defendants to crime scenes. When the Trill of a Cellphone Brings the Clang of Prison Doors<\/a> by Anemona Hartocollis.<\/p>\n

Examining cellphone data is a technique that has moved from being a masterful surprise in trials to being a standard tool in the investigative arsenal of the police and prosecutors, with records routinely provided by cellphone companies in response to subpoenas. Its use in prosecutions is often challenged, for privacy reasons and for technical reasons, especially when the data comes during the morning or evening rush, when circuits are crowded and calls can be redirected to other towers. But it is often allowed and is used by both prosecutors and defense attorneys to buttress their cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the most important developments in technology in the courtroom in the last five years,\u201d said Mark J. Geragos, a Los Angeles defense lawyer known for his celebrity clients, who challenged cell tower data while defending Scott Peterson, a Modesto, Calif., fertilizer salesman sentenced to death in 2005 for killing his pregnant wife, Laci.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The only way one can claim privacy grounds is if the state constitution or some statute supports the argument because the Fourth Amendment won’t under Smith v. Maryland<\/em>.<\/p>\n

As the article notes, cellphone tower data is not uniformly correct. Cellphone experts can testify to the possibility that calls skipped towers or were redirected, but, it has to be consistent with the defense as to which tower the call likely skipped to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

b2evALnk.b2WPAutP Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"pingsdone","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}