Palin hacker found guilty on two counts

[cali]

Greg Masters
April 30, 2010

The 22-year-old man accused of hacking into the Yahoo! email account of Sarah Palin while she was the Republican candidate for vice president was found guilty of two of four counts: unlawful computer access and obstruction of justice, according to a report in the Knoxville News Sentinel. He was acquitted of the charge of wire fraud and a mistrial was declared on count one, identity theft.

David Kernell was a 20-year-old economics student at the University of Tennessee when he hacked his way past security questions to access Palin's personal email account in 2008. Kernell gained access by providing Palin's birth date and ZIP code to Yahoo's password retrieval system. At that time, she was the governor of Alaska and recently recruited as running mate in the presidential bid of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

The government will decide next week whether to retry the case, with sentencing to follow after that decision is made, according to @hsumerford reporting via Twitter from the scene. Kernell and his attorney had no comment for the press as they left the courtroom, he added.

A jury in Knoxville, Tenn. comprised of six men and six women, began hearing testimony last week in the case, including from Palin and her daughter Bristol, who both testified that the event disrupted their lives.

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http://www.scmagazineus.com/palin-hacker-found-guilty-on-two-counts/article/168782/

[RandomThoughts]

1. Precedent set, now we can prosecute the systems that

broke into many emails without warrants for years. Bush Justice Department, and those programs Gonzales spoke of.

[katandmoon]

4. Have to wait for another administration to do that.. Obama's DOJ won't.

[bluestateguy]

2. You just can't do those things

and before the peanut gallery pipes in, the law exists not just to project those who we like but also those whom we despise.

Now I wonder how many people will start using the Everybody Does it Defense, or double back to cackling about Bush and Cheney's war crimes as somehow being valid excuses for this little punk's misdeeds.

[reflection]

6. That's pretty much what it boils down to.

You don't appropriate someone's email, even if it is as simple as guessing their husband's name.

Now they need to go after Palin for violating Sunshine laws by conducting state affairs via a non-sanctioned email address.

Of course, IANAL, so make of that what you will.

[madokie]

3. His hacking should have only shown how insecure they were

not a criminal offense.

[chelsea0011]

5. My Facebook page was hacked twice. When I contacted Facebook,

they told me to change my password. So where when do my indictments come down?