"Because of the negative connotations evoked by these terms, there is a significant danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, and misleading the jury," the motion states. "Hackers are commonly portrayed as dangerous criminals who are involved in malicious conduct such as credit card fraud, stealing, intentional disruption of legitimate activities and causing economic damages."More to the point, they might think he had a clue about computers or something.
"It doesn't constitute what we would label as advanced hacking," Rob Graham, CEO of consultancy firm Errata Security, said of the acts alleged in the indictment. "It's something that a teen can figure out, rather than an advanced professional."Well, that's about right.
Seems like the lawyers are in essence asking the judge to dismiss based on the client's advanced level of dumbness. Come to think of it, that seems about right, too. Res ipsa loquitur.
If the defendant's a twit, you must acquit.
A long time ago, I went to night court to contest a traffic citation. I had to wait my turn, and the most serious case was a young man who, during the annual town festival, had gone thru the drive-in window at Burger King, ordered, and then passed out before he could get his food.
ReplyDeleteEMS was called, and when the removed him from the car, his stash was in plain sight on the front seat. Arrested, he was, when he recovered from all the fun he'd been having.
Drunk in public, driving while intoxicated, possession of open container, possession of controlled substances, and so on.
At the end of the legal proceedings, with his guilt established, and 6 months in county lockup, to be served on a road gang as his primary punishment, the judge had the young man approach the bench.
I remember his words well, "Now, Mr. ******, you are going to be in jail for 6 months, and you probably think you are going to jail for having drugs, and driving drunk. But if you think that, you are wrong. You are going to jail for being stupid. And I want you to wake up every morning and say to yourself, I'm here because I was stupid. It might help you when you get out to avoid coming into my courtroom again."
Seems like something that could be said to the guy who gained access to Gov. Palin's mail, hacker though he may not be.