The phrase is the title of a 2002 song by lesser-known rapper from South Carolina, Pachino Dino. While the legal ideas behind the phrase are much older, the phrase no face, no case appears to have emerged by at least the early 2000s. No face, no case is not necessarily true. Along the same lines, if the only witness (the face) to the crime fails or refuses to testify, the thinking goes, then the case will be dropped due to lack of definitive evidence. The idea of no face, no case relies on the fact that, even when a suspect matches the exact description of the perpetrator, if no person saw or camera captured the wrongdoer’s face ( no face), then there is usually reasonable doubt, and the case will be dismissed ( no case). In many countries including the US, a suspect is innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
