Canada Investigating How Critical Skyrim Typo Landed Man In Prison
Canadian officials are now investigating how a Skyrim username mix-up landed a man in prison for 18 months.
As reported by Dexerto, the Nova Scotia Attorney General, Scott Armstrong, has requested a briefing from the Public Prosecution Service as part of an investigation into the mix-up, assuring that it will never happen again.
"I'm very concerned about this," Armstrong said. "I'm not sure how something like this can happen within the system. I've asked the Public Prosecution Service to give me a specific briefing on all the steps in this case. And once I have that, I want to make some decisions of what the next steps will be."
"I'm Not Sure How Something Like This Can Happen"
Last month, we reported that Brandon Klayme had been acquitted after serving over a year behind bars for a crime he did not commit. The reason he was arrested and sentenced is solely because of his Kik username, 'fus_ro_dah'.
Police were looking for a man using the alias 'fus__ro_dah' (real name Jay) after he sent an "inappropriate" photo to a 12-year-old Wisconsin girl, but when requesting information from the messaging app, the cops missed a crucial underscore. No other evidence was found to implicate Klayme, meaning that a typo alone landed him behind bars.
There were plenty of opportunities for someone to realize they had the wrong man. Police obtained a search warrant for Klayme's premises and seized his phones and laptops on the basis of the username, but no evidence relevant to the case was found, and nothing linked him to the girl.
Police couldn't even prove that Klayme had accessed Kik during the period in which California-based user Jay had contacted the girl. Nonetheless, because his username was 'fus_ro_dah', he was arrested and charged.