A judge’s decision to let prosecutors show jurors a Russian social media account ascribed to a defendant fell short of evidentiary rules, a federal appeals court found as it ordered a new trial.
Seeking to demonstrate that Aliaksandr Zhyltsou unlawfully emailed a faked birth certificate, Eastern District prosecutors pointed to a social media account they said was Zhyltsou’s; the print-out of the account listed information such as a Skype username that matched the username of the email sending the forged certificate.
