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A Missing Underscore Sent Innocent Man To Prison For 18 Months (arstechnica.com) 222

Posted by BeauHD from the copy-paste-incarcerate dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: One missing underscore in a Skyrim-themed username put an innocent Nova Scotia man in prison for 18 months. A 2018 child-luring investigation, which began in Madison, Wisconsin, and eventually extended to Halifax, Canada, was based on a false premise. Police were looking for a man using the Kik messaging service under the name "fus__ro_dah" (two underscores after "fus"), but they accidentally requested records for the username "fus_ro_dah" (one underscore after "fus"). This one-character difference led them not to the perpetrator but to a Canadian man named Brandon Klayme. (Ars readers may recognize "fus ro dah" as the Unrelenting Force "dragon shout" from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.)

Despite finding no evidence of the crime on his digital devices, Canadian police arrested Klayme in 2020 on child sex abuse charges. He was convicted after a trial in 2023 and sentenced in 2024 to 18 months in prison. He served the full term. Even after release, Klayme continued to fight his conviction. In the process of preparing his appeal, the username mistake that led to all these years of disruption was finally discovered. On Thursday, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal overturned Klayme's conviction, writing: "Mr. Klayme is factually innocent of the offences. He should never have been charged, let alone convicted." [...] As the court puts it, "Although the information about the usernames was available at the time of the trial, there is no evidence confirming or explaining how it went unnoticed."

A Missing Underscore Sent Innocent Man To Prison For 18 Months More | Reply

A Missing Underscore Sent Innocent Man To Prison For 18 Months

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  • Life imitating art? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by TwistedGreen ( 80055 ) on Monday July 27, 2026 @11:35PM (#66260024)

    Wow. As horrible as this story is, it can't be denied that this man is a modern-day Buttle.

  • This ladies and gentlemen (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Monday July 27, 2026 @11:38PM (#66260028)
    is why I oppose the death penalty. Flimsy evidence convictions are extremely common.
    • Just one good reason out of many good reasons to oppose the death penalty.

    • Mob justice is often applied when they go in for this crime. Much like a death penalty.

    • Re:This ladies and gentlemen (Score:5, Interesting)

      by sg_oneill ( 159032 ) on Tuesday July 28, 2026 @03:39AM (#66260168)

      Yeah. I worked in the courts for 3-4 years around '99-'03 and it was eye-opening how.... random... jury convictions really are. The judge I worked under estimated that around a third of those found guilty where probably innocent and a third found innocent probably did it, and that matched my gut feeling. You kind of get a feel for who gets convicted vs who is actually guilty. But none of that really stands up to scientific scrutiny, cos gut feelings..... What did seem clear is that what makes a difference is how well you scrub up in front of a jury and how expensive your lawyer is. Juries just have no experience or instinct for it.

      You couldn't possibly want THAT to be the system that decides life and death, especially when the topic is something as emotionally charged as murder. Its enough to give one chills the thought that you end up on the wrong side of a vindictive cop or prosecutor, and that cop or prosecutor decides your going to die and fudges the evidence to put a rope around your neck, because thats probably a story thats as old as humans putting ropes around each others necks.

      I dont think *anybody* should feel safe living in a world where your government is allowed to kill you. Its the literal opposite of free.

      • If plenty of people who probably did it are being found innocent, that's the system working as it's supposed to, since that "probably" means it wasn't provable beyond reasonable doubt.

      • Re:This ladies and gentlemen (Score:5, Interesting)

        by evanh ( 627108 ) on Tuesday July 28, 2026 @09:08AM (#66260562)

        I've served a total of once on a jury. And even that one time, because it involved drugs, with one pinch of meth found in a pocket, there was one person on the jury that refused to reason any of the provided facts. That juror only wanted to see the accused go to prison for as long as possible, and I'm sure would have been okay with the death penalty if we had such a law. Needless to say it was a hung jury and the judge ruled based on excluding that single vote.

        Another interesting observation of that very same juror was the total acceptance of everything said by the "expert" detective on the stand, wearing his full uniform of course.

        I can fully understand if more than one such person is on the jury it would be easy enough to turn the votes just get it over with.

      • It's certainly true that some innocent people are convicted, and some guilty people are acquitted. But I'd be careful putting a lot of faith in the judge's "feeling" about the percentages. This is the definition of anecdotal evidence.

        Regarding the death penalty specifically, it's really, *really* hard to be executed in the US. Anyone who is sentenced to death, gets the benefit of millions of dollars in legal defense, and many years of court cases. Of about 20,000 cases where defendants are convicted of some

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      We should reform our court systems (this happens regularly in the UK as well). The assumption is that a trial by jury is the ultimate and flawless arbiter of truth, but of course they are deeply flawed. The process often misses or obscures relevant evidence, and the jury is usually just a stack of prejudices and power mad individuals.

      This kind of thing should clearly have been caught early on, and I hope he gets very significant compensation. It's going to be hard to put his life back together after this, m

      • and the jury is usually just a stack of prejudices and power mad individuals.

        You say jury, but you sounds awfully like you're talking about judges there.

        That's the problem with much of the "reform", it involves handing ever more power to a bunch of out of touch, callous, lazy dimwits.

        I've done jury service, and I've had to engage with the court, and I've frankly been more impressed with juries than judges.

    • I for one approve of the death penalty for deserving politicians. If they know we can kill them it keeps them more honest.

  • Compensation? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by CRC'99 ( 96526 ) on Monday July 27, 2026 @11:38PM (#66260030) Homepage

    One would hope that given this guy was deprived of his freedom through no fault of his own that there would be substantial compensation due.

    It's one thing to just vacate the sentence, its another to make up for what those actions of the state did to this guy...

    • Re:Compensation? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by misnohmer ( 1636461 ) on Tuesday July 28, 2026 @02:41AM (#66260134)

      Perhaps one good way to gauge the compensation is to sentence the prosecutor, the judge, and other parties involved in the prosecution to 18 months in the same jail, then see how much they would be willing to pay to not go to not have to do the 18 months, and have this charge on their criminal record. The victim here could then decide to either take their money, or let them go to jail unless they are willing to up their offer, in which case the victim can reconsider. This would be somewhat representative of "market value" for 18 months in the very same jail.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Compensation should be based on restoring him to the position he was in before he was falsely accused and convicted. So if he lost any property or income, that is compensated, including future earnings due to his lost job and damaged career. Then there needs to be compensation for the harm done to him, which your method seems like a decent way to gauge.

        • Re:Compensation? (Score:4, Interesting)

          by Randseed ( 132501 ) on Tuesday July 28, 2026 @04:34AM (#66260248)
          The problem is that in our current hellscape civilization, just the accusation destroys someone, and there is usually no consequence for the person who made the accusation. Look at the Duke Lacross people for instance. We have a society where someone can claim that they were sexually abused 30 years ago and destroy someone. Nobody ever asks "Uh, why didn't you say something 30 years ago?" because that would be "victim shaming."

          The "justice" system is an utter disaster. In this case, they locked a guy up for 18 months, destroyed his life and reputation, and get to say "Oops!"

          • The Duke Lacross accusation was made the same year, not 30 years later.

            The problem with the Duke case was that DNA found the men innocent and the prosecutor HID that evidence. The prosecutor did not tell anyone this and ended up going to jail for one day for this 'mistake'.

            No one denies the women were molested, they just arrested the wrong people.

            The problem is not the time line and YES, asking people why they did not make the accusation earlier is almost always victim shaming. People that are raped ofte

            • No one denies the women were molested?
              WTF. Even the accuser said she made it up (per wikipedia - Dec 11 2024 she finally 'came clean').

      • Sentence for what crime? One crime postulated abusing kids, the other was a typographical mistake that not only the prosecution, but ALSO THE DEFENCE missed. That's the bar we just set. Maybe we should put the guy back in jail along with the prosecution if you want to make not noticing typographical errors a crime?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by irchans ( 527097 )
      A million dollars after taxes (if any) and legal fees is a good start. Add more if he has to fight for compensation. It's more than 18 months in jail which is bad enough. The process that led the conviction needs to be reexamined.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by brunes69 ( 86786 )

      Yep - and the taxpayers will pay millions, and the idiots responsible continue in their jobs.

  • Hopefully he sues for a few million. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Kernel Kurtz ( 182424 ) on Monday July 27, 2026 @11:39PM (#66260032)
    Pity his compensation can't come out of police and prosecutor pensions.

    • Re: Hopefully he sues for a few million. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by toutankh ( 1544253 ) on Tuesday July 28, 2026 @12:10AM (#66260060)

      Police made a mistake, it sucks but they're humans, mistakes are bound to happen. As much as I distrust and dislike the police, i don't blame them for the outcome here. The prosecution worked with what they had. The real issue here, in my opinion, is declaring someone guilty without evidence. Whoever made that judgement shouldn't be allowed to make judgements, and should be punished for having done so.

      • I get that a typo can easily happen, but how was this not caught prior to ruining a man's life and reputation especially with no other corroborating evidence? Seems like there had to be humans in the chain of events that had a reckless level of carelessness. Nobody cared to use caution and check carefully.

      • Re: Hopefully he sues for a few million. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by migos ( 10321981 ) on Tuesday July 28, 2026 @02:05AM (#66260108)
        "Despite finding no evidence of the crime on his digital devices" I would say that's pretty reckless

        • Despite finding no evidence

          See, if he wasn't guilty, he wouldn't have needed to get rid of even circumstantial evidence.

          (An actual argument that was used in a different case where an innocent man died in prison.)

      • When you have the power to take away people's freedom, there's one direction in which you absolutely Do. Not. Make. Mistakes.

        If you want to make mistakes, uou pay carful attention to do it the other way: let them go by mistake, if you're not 100% sure and 100% right

      • Police made a mistake, but they don't have nearly as much incentive to get it right as they do to get it done.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by allo ( 1728082 )

        The problem is not the typo, but that they seem to have sentenced him on a chatlog alone.
        Using the chatlog as first point for investigation is fine. But a textfile alone should never be an evidence. What if Kik would have wanted to frame someone? Why does the police trust a piece of text they get from a chat provider?

        They should have taken the log as starting point and then investigated if he really did it. The investigation would not have come up with results and he would probably be free due to a lack of

    • The problem is collecting. You would think being the government that would be easy but...

      Then again it's canada. In America if this happens to you it's 50/50 whether you get any compensation. There's a guy who spent something like 20 or 30 years in prison and was given a few million bucks for it only to have it taken away. And there are dozens of people currently rotting in prison because a judge won't border their release even though they have already been exonerated.

      People do not realize how utter

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Afroman was denied compensation, but at least he was able to humiliate the police and make some money off it. Most people aren't that fortunate.

    • The end of your comment was slightly cut off on my screen, and here is in all seriousness how I read it:

      Pity his compensation can't come out of police and prosecutor penis.

    • Pity his compensation can't come out of police and prosecutor pensions.

      Given he himself and his own legal team failed to notice the error, I think you're posting emotionally and not logically. The defence in this case would have been trivial had it actually been noticed by *ANYONE*.

      • That assumes the defense were given the unaltered original evidence and that nothing was withheld—Vs only turning over the bare minimum.

  • Already a problem regardless of underscore count (Score:5, Insightful)

    by toutankh ( 1544253 ) on Monday July 27, 2026 @11:40PM (#66260034)

    Regardless of underscore count, this is a real issue:

    Despite finding no evidence of the crime on his digital devices, Canadian police arrested Klayme in 2020 on child sex abuse charges. He was convicted after a trial in 2023 and sentenced in 2024 to 18 months in prison.

    So they just assumed he must be the guy despite having no evidence that he was the guy, then sent him to jail, essentially ruining his life. Shouldn't this have been a big issue already then? Shouldn't there be consequences for the person(s) who made that judgement?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by SumDog ( 466607 )
      Could have had a really bad or incompetent lawyer, or a completely brain dead jury. Tragic either way.

      • Isn't there a professional judge involved? There should be one, and they should bring up the absence of evidence. It could as well have been the correct username but a case of identity theft, the accused should only defend themselves against evidence, which apparently did not exist. This is absurd and would also have been absurd with the correct username.

        • There was a judge involved, and the evidence was there. Just the link to the person on trial was faulty.

          This was presented as evidence by the police, and the judge trusted it. In order to question whether the claimed link to the person is correct, there'd have to first be some reason to doubt it. Which is also probably not the job for the judge to check, but the lawyer and some technical expert. Requiring, again, an initial suspicion.

          From what I read about this case elsewhere, not even the accused got the i
          • "evidence by the police, and the judge trusted it"

            ... That is a whole 'nother crime, right there!

          • I disagree. The accused's computer was searched and nothing was found. A person owning the account from which the messages were sent is not enough evidence to send that person to jail, not in any sensible justice system. What even is the point of the search, if the outcome of the search does not matter? What difference would it have made if they had found evidence on that computer? This is not a rhetorical question.

            Also, the accused shouldn't have to prove that he got hacked, especially not in the absence o

            • Claiming his account was hacked would be an affirmative defense. That is, one the defendant has to prove was the case, like an insanity or self-defense plea (the facts are true, but I didn't commit a crime because...). And, since neither his nor the actual offender's account were hacked, that defense was doomed.

              Clearly, they had enough evidence to convict double underscore without needing to show what devices were used to commit the offence. Leaving this as just another tragic case of mistaken identit

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by allo ( 1728082 )

        One should assume he wouldn't even need a defense with a competent judge, who recognizes that there is nothing but a chatlog to support the allegations. Without evidence there should be no conviction. A chatlog is a starting point to find a suspect (and that word does not mean more than they should be investigated), but no proof that they are guilty.

    • Probably some Epstein class hacker who picked his name in the first place.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by XaXXon ( 202882 )

      Do you want to be a judge for mediocre pay and the chance to go to prison for following the rules that are set forth for you to follow?

      DID YOU THINK ABOUT THIS AT ALL BEFORE YOU GOT MAD?

      • Are you saying that judges should have great power but without great responsibility, that they should not be accountable? If yes, how do you justify that they, unlike most of us, shouldn't be accountable for their grave mistakes? Otherwise, what are you actually saying?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by XaXXon ( 202882 )

          Yes, I'm saying if they follow the processes PROSCRIBE BY SOCIETY that they shouldn't be sent to jail.

          Step 1: engage your brain

          Step 2: maybe comment

          • Yes, I'm saying if they follow the processes PROSCRIBE BY SOCIETY that they shouldn't be sent to jail.

            Step 1: engage your brain

            Step 2: maybe comment

            Certainly they could be sent to jail in that case. Because you don't know what "proscribe" means. Here's a hint:

            proscribed; proscribing

            1: to publish the name of as condemned to death with the property of the condemned forfeited to the state
            2: to condemn or forbid as harmful or unlawful : prohibit

            Maybe you should try step 1 of your system before step 2.

          • Society does not say to convict without evidence, so I'm not sure what point you are trying to make.

            Also, you have not answered my question.

            Ad hominem is unnecessary by the way, using it to attack me only says something about you, and what it says isn't great.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dvice ( 6309704 )

      No. The real issue is the double underscore. If double underscore had not been allowed in the username, this mistake would have never happened. This is an usability error in the software.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Slayer ( 6656 )

      So they just assumed he must be the guy despite having no evidence that he was the guy, then sent him to jail, essentially ruining his life. Shouldn't this have been a big issue already then? Shouldn't there be consequences for the person(s) who made that judgement?

      Before I create a misunderstanding: I find that guy's conviction horrible, and the system clearly failed him hard. He lost money, freedom, job and probably most of his social circles, and I just wish the system has the means to help him rebuild most of what he lost.

      Now to my actual point: I have been a juror in some CSA court case once and can report from personal experience. These are probably the kinds of cases with the worst jury decisions and the worst kinds of judge behavior. The alleged acts of the de

      • That's why planting drugs or accusing of CP is easy mode. So easy. In fact, you don't even have to plant drugs—just say you recovered them and show baggies with something white in them as proof and wave 'Crime lab analysis' reports. (Houston crime labs repeatedly were caught falsifying those, for example, then there is the whole thing in Baltimore where the police were raiding dealers to get supply for their own sales)

        If J'accuse is enough it'll be abused by the ruthless (and also by lazy officials)

  • are they going to take him off the registry?

  • Insane (Score:3)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Tuesday July 28, 2026 @12:43AM (#66260074)

    This would be an insane thing to endure. The prosecution and everyone involved in this should go to jail

    • You know, if this was the cost of screwing up this royally, we'd probably see a little more care.

      What this guy probably endured in prison as well, they don't treat pedos kindly.

      And the actual pedo presumably is still free.

      Absolutely disastrous on all accounts.

    • There needs to be accountablity, but there almost never is.

      The police and prosecution tend to get consequences casually dismissed, "you win some, you lose some", or "mistakes are human, live and learn." Sometimes lawyers have a professional repremand, very rarely fines, but not time behind bars.

      If the man is lucky, he might get compensation for the time locked up, and maybe some of the legal costs. Most likely it will be only a small portion, if at all.

      If there is any compensation it won't restore his j

    • This would be an insane thing to endure. The prosecution and everyone involved in this should go to jail

      Given the light of this evidence would lead to instant dismissal, it would only be right to also jail the defence lawyer and the victim in your scenario (though maybe with a slightly reduced sentence)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Obviously not. The victim got thrown in there and has no requirement to even understand what is happening. The defense lawyer was probably chosen by the victim and hence has the same limitations. The accusers, however, and the ones convicting, have a duty to make sure they have it right. They failed that duty in gross negligence and should face punishment in proportion to the damage they did by not doing their jobs with even basic competence.

  • Went to Prison as a Reviled Child Sex Criminal (Score:5, Informative)

    by hutkept ( 10503251 ) on Tuesday July 28, 2026 @01:29AM (#66260088)
    One of the worst things is he didn't just go to prison for anything (drugs, robbery, assault), but as a reviled 'chester'. Those guys are isolated and hated by the rest of the prison population, and the first to get attacked, harassed, and abused themselves. Often times they are put in special isolation to protect them, but just as often, they are not. This wasn't a "regular" prison visit for this guy.
    • As a society we want to torture people but we get squeamish when it comes time to do the actual torturing. So when we put people in prison we make it a point to let the prisoners and the system itself inflict the torture we are too squeamish to do ourselves.

      It's really fucked up when you think about it. A proper civilization would use prison either for rehabilitation or containment.

  • Missing underscore didn't do shit! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by T34L ( 10503334 ) on Tuesday July 28, 2026 @01:35AM (#66260092)
    A careless, cynical and unfair judicial system and its shocking miscarriage of justice sent this guy to prison. Whoever gave that article that headline should be ashamed of themselves.

  • Evidence not required (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Ossifer ( 703813 ) on Tuesday July 28, 2026 @02:12AM (#66260120)

    For charges of terrorism and child sexual anything, prosecutors know that they do not need to present any factual evidence. There mere accusation is enough to convict.

  • A machine can tell the difference between one and two underscores. Whether a human can do so is dependent on the human and the font. (And a whole host of factors too numerous to name).

    The computer _should_ be taught to flag the double underscore as illegal, and flag this as an error. That is obviously not going to happen, However, the guy who used the double underscore should be jailed for using it for assault of ASCII, regardless of any other crimes he committed!

  • How can he have been convicted when there was absolutely no evidence?

    • How can he have been convicted when there was absolutely no evidence?

      The prosecutors wanted him convicted, the police wanted him convicted, Parents wanted him convicted.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Yes. And nobody was even remotely careful to make sure they have the right person. That makes them the problem here. Also, did they have no competent IT expert in there? Even a casual string comparison immediately shows the blatantly obvious.

        I think this reaches and exceeds the threshold for criminal negligence.

  • I'm not certain how it is in the great White North, but here Prosecutors are elected, and the metric is that they must convict.

    The other metric is that they have metrics to perform a "fair trial" As long as the defendant is convicted and receives that "fair trial", they simply do not care if the defendant was actually guilty, because the next election cycle, they can point at their conviction rate, highlighting crimes that are more media worthy.

  • Wrong font (Score:3)

    by wgoodman ( 1109297 ) on Tuesday July 28, 2026 @07:46AM (#66260404)

    This is a great argument for court docs to be printed in courier. 2 underscores would be apparent pretty quickly.

  • Imagine what this would do to you mentally. You've never done what you were accused of, but you're found guilty anyway. All of your family probably suspects you too. Your neighbours and coworkers don't want anything to do with you. You're presumed guilty. One moment you're going through life smoothly and suddenly your life is turned upside down, and it's not an 'act of God'... it's just other people who erroneously decided to cast you out of society. It's a horror movie.

  • Seriously, how completely incompetent do you have to be to send somebody to prison for 18 months with no evidence besides a short user name that apparently was not even looked at carefully by a competent expert? My take is this is way above the threshold for criminal negligence and the ones that did this need to be punished to make it clear how unacceptable their actions are.

  • The Movie Brazil (Score:3)

    by TomClancy_Jack ( 638962 ) on Tuesday July 28, 2026 @09:33AM (#66260616)
    It's literally the premiss of the beginning of the Terry Gilliam movie Brazil. A typewriter error writes the wrong name and the wrong man is sent away into the system. And rather than admit any mistakes, the endless layers of bureaucracy covers up the mistake. Only this isn't just a bureaucracy problem - the cops and the justice system don't care if they get the right people - they just have to get SOMEBODY close enough to juice their performance metrics. They can and do frame people just to close their books and move on. False positives from AI are only making this worse. A woman was recently held for 15 days in jail because the Flock cam identified the wrong car in a hit and run case. A random woman was hauled to another state and held for months for a fraud case just becase a camera mis-iDd her. And it's not just the fault of the tech - the cops and DAs just want to close cases and they literally don't care who the AI fingers for it just as long as there is a thread that can make it stick.
  • The most important part of our justice system is to create the illusion that people don't get away with crimes. In the 60s the conviction rate was in the 80-90% it's now around 50%. To keep our society functioning we need to think that people won't get away with murder and theft. As our policing, surveillance and forensic abilities have gotten better our conviction rate for murders has fallen. That would imply a large portion of our convictions in the past were incorrect. Our new abilities have mostly gone

  • Never, ever use two underscores in a row in your username.

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