Palin email Hacker Pleads Not Guilty
Wednesday October 8, 2008
According to the Christian Science Monitor, 20-year-old David Kernell, son of Rep. Mike Kernell (D), chair of the Tennessee Government Operations Committee, has pleaded not guilty to one felony count of "accessing a computer without permission." See the indictment (pdf).
Gov. Palin's personal Yahoo! email account was hacked into in September. You can see hacked material on WikiLeaks. Kernell turned himself in after he learned that he would be charged.
Internet response is interesting. A senior editor at ZDNet seems to think the crime is no big deal. Given that a Hawaiian postal carrier was sentenced to only six months for stealing mail -- maybe he's right. But it takes a lot more initiative -- and premediation -- to break into someone's personal email account than it does to fail to deliver a piece of mail.
Here's the federal statute on mail:
If convicted, Kernell faces a maximum of five years in prison (just like US mail), a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release.
Wired reported last month:
What do you think? How much of a crime is it if you break into a public official's private email account?
Gov. Palin's personal Yahoo! email account was hacked into in September. You can see hacked material on WikiLeaks. Kernell turned himself in after he learned that he would be charged.
Internet response is interesting. A senior editor at ZDNet seems to think the crime is no big deal. Given that a Hawaiian postal carrier was sentenced to only six months for stealing mail -- maybe he's right. But it takes a lot more initiative -- and premediation -- to break into someone's personal email account than it does to fail to deliver a piece of mail.
Here's the federal statute on mail:
Title 18 Section 1708 Theft or receipt of stolen mail generally: Whoever steals, takes, or abstracts, or by fraud or deception obtains, or attempts so to obtain, from or out of any mail, post office, or station thereof, letter box, mail receptacle, or any mail route or authorized depository for mail matter, or from a letter or mail carrier, any letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or abstracts or removes from any such letter, package, bag, or mail, any article or thing contained therein, or secretes, embezzles, or destroys any such letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or thing contained therein... Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years.
If convicted, Kernell faces a maximum of five years in prison (just like US mail), a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release.
Wired reported last month:
The hacker said that he read all of the e-mails in the Palin accountIn contemporary postings, the hacker indicated that he knew what he was doing was a crime... "if this s*** ever got to the FBI I was f*****, I panicked..."
and found "nothing incriminating, nothing that would derail her
campaign as I had hoped. All I saw was personal stuff, some clerical
stuff from when she was governor…. And pictures of her family."
What do you think? How much of a crime is it if you break into a public official's private email account?
Comments
The consequences should remain consistant with past practice: Since it was a relative of a liberal democrat victimizing a conservative republican, the response should be “no big deal”….
It is a crime! Situational ethics isn’t law, therefore, his own quote shouts, “this is a crime and I am doing it anyway”. This teacher needs some consequences for real life wrong doing, or else our schools are going to be a free for all.
Hi, Spruce - I’m assuming you are being sarcastic.
Hi, llevans - who are you referencing as “this teacher”? Me? Because I’ve certainly NOT said that I thought there should be no consequences for his action. I did say that the ZD editor might be right legally, given how lightly the federal law seems to be invoked for stealing paper mail.
Puleeeeeeeeeese…….put this little IDIOT in jail where he belongs…….I don’t care WHO his DADDY is. Governor Palin should file a lawsuit against the parents and the boy and should carry it to the highest court that she can find.
I think he should be fined. I don’t know what the custom is in the USA, but in Europe, usually first offenders for smaller crimes don’t do real jail time, only suspensions.
And I think that it should be the same for all the Bush administration people who illegally pried on innocent people under the false pretenses of fighting global terror… Except that they are not first offenders but multiple recidivists. So get them in jail for five years and fine them the max. You can give the money to home owners threatened with foreclosure.
Given that it was a private email account and not an official government email, I think there are at least 200 million cases that need to be prosecuted before this one. Aren’t we all supposed to be equal before the law?