Thursday, September 30, 2010

Court upholds conviction of guy who hacked Sarah Palin's email account

Actually, it wasn't a "hack".  Still, a District Attorney filed four felony charges against him, and a jury upheld one of them, and an Appeals Court said that the verdict stands:
A federal judge has shot down a former University of Tennessee student's bid to have tossed out convictions in the illegal access of Sarah Palin's personal e-mail account during the 2008 presidential election.

...

The feds slapped Kernell with four felony charges. At his trial in April jurors rejected a wire fraud charge outright, reduced a felony illegal e-mail access charge to a misdemeanor, deadlocked on an identity theft count and convicted Kernell of the felony charge of anticipatory obstruction of justice.
I have to say that I think the felony rap is excessive.  "Anticipatory Obstruction of Justice"?  That's a pretty broad net to cast, and sorry to say I don't trust politically appointed (or elected) DAs not to abuse that power.  The kid is a punk, hit him with a couple misdemeanors, fine him, and make him pick up the trash for a while.

But taking away his voting and gun rights over this?  Good grief.  That's just encouraging the encroaching Government Elite to come after more people.

4 comments:

Paladin said...

Agreed.

"Anticipatory Obstruction of Justice" smacks too much of "Thinkin' about doing something bad".

A little time spent cleaning out Dog Kennels at the local Animal Shelter is another nice way to spread the Community Service Love :)

Anonymous said...

We reap what we sow.

As a society, we've been allowing the government to take more and more control over our lives. "There oughta be a law" and the fact that the government has no control over non-criminals, is what leads to virtually everything being a crime and minor "offenses" becoming felonies.

It's poetic justice that this person is presumably of the political persuasion that is the most active in enacting these "citizen control" measures so I find the verdict quite fitting personally.

TJP said...

I think a felony charge is absolutely ridiculous. Especially when Comrade Sam gets a pass.

Borepatch said...

TJP, agreed. I'm very uncomfortable with a Felony rap for this.

The question is who will they use it on next? I think we all suspect that we know the answer.