United States v. Zhyltsou
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
769 F.3d 125 (2d Cir. 2014)
Alexander Zhyltsou (defendant), charged with forging a birth certificate for Vladyslav Timku, faced Timku's testimony that Zhyltsou created and emailed the forged document from a specific Gmail address; the prosecution also introduced, over objection, a printout of a VK.com (Russian Facebook) profile bearing Zhyltsou's picture and information, which listed a Skype address the prosecution linked to the Gmail address, but conceded it did not know whether VK.com required identity verification to create a profile, and offered no other evidence Zhyltsou created the page himself. Zhyltsou was convicted and appealed the profile printout's admission.
Whether, under Federal Rule of Evidence 901, the proponent of an item of evidence must sufficiently prove that the item is what the proponent claims it is.