Police relied on showing photo of Paulo Alberto da Silva Costa, wrongly jailed for years, to victims to identify him as an alleged perpetrator

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.