State v. Bouknight, 323 Conn. 620

Victim William Baines was fatally shot on October 9, 2010; several eyewitnesses placed defendant Derrick Bouknight at the scene and identified him as the shooter.
Witnesses described the shooter wearing a single black glove on his right hand and a baseball cap with a red underside to its bill.
Defendant was arrested in New Jersey wearing a matching cap and one black glove; both items were introduced at trial.
A New Haven police officer located and printed a Facebook profile and three photographs attributed to the defendant; the state sought to admit these printouts at trial.
Defendant objected, arguing the Facebook page and photos were not properly authenticated and might not have been posted or created by him and could have been altered.
Trial court admitted the Facebook exhibits; defendant was convicted of murder and related firearm offenses and appealed, challenging authentication.

Issue	State's Argument	Bouknight's Argument	Held
Whether the Facebook profile page and photos were properly authenticated for admission	The Facebook content bore pervasive, consistent identifiers tying the page to Bouknight; photos of him served as a "silent witness" and need not be shown to have been uploaded by him	No proof that defendant created/maintained the profile or uploaded the photos; content was generic and lacked distinctive circumstantial indicators; photos weren’t shown to be accurate/unaltered	Court assumed, without deciding, any admission error and assessed harmlessness; held any error harmless because evidence was cumulative and prosecution’s case was strong
Whether any erroneous admission of the Facebook evidence was harmful (nonconstitutional error)	Admission was harmless: multiple independent eyewitness identifications, corroboration (cap and glove), and innocuous nature of photos	Admission prejudiced the jury because exhibits were not authenticated and could have influenced identification	Court applied harmless error standard; concluded error would not have substantially affected jury verdict and affirmed conviction

State v. Favoccia, 306 Conn. 770 (harmless error standard for nonconstitutional evidentiary rulings)
State v. Eleck, 314 Conn. 123 (prior case finding Facebook-related evidentiary error harmless where multiple eyewitnesses implicated defendant)
State v. Rodriguez, 311 Conn. 80 (similar harmlessness discussion when testimonial evidence corroborated by eyewitnesses)
State v. Bonner, 290 Conn. 468 (error in admitting evidence harmless where other corroborating evidence was ample and defendant could fully confront testimony)
Fraley v. Facebook, Inc., 830 F. Supp. 2d 785 (N.D. Cal. 2011) (general description of Facebook user profiles and account creation)