Student Gets 20 Years for Hacking Palin's Email

[dragon wench]

[url="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8655569.stm"]Student convicted of hacking Sarah Palin e-mail account[/url]

A jury in Tennessee has convicted a former student of hacking the e-mail account of US politician Sarah Palin, Associated Press news agency reports.

David Kernell, 22, was found guilty of obstructing justice and unauthorised access to a computer.

He faces up to 20 years in prison for the first charge and one year for the charge of hacking.

He broke into Ms Palin's e-mail account during her 2008 Republican campaign for the vice-presidency of the US.

Kernell, who was a student at the University of Tennessee at the time, was cleared of a charge of wire fraud.

The jury were unable to agree on a verdict on a charge of identity fraud, for which he could face another trial.

Kernell's lawyer had said his client's actions amounted to a college prank, rather than a crime.

But prosecutors said it was an attempt to influence a national election through illegal means.

Mrs Palin, who testified last Friday, said that Kernell had compromised the main way she had communicated with her family during the campaign by breaking into her Yahoo e-mail account






OK, I fully acknowledge that what this guy did was wrong, and yes he should be administered some form of punishment.
However.... twenty years !?!?!
That's more than what many people get for serious violent crimes!

[jklinders]

Well the charge could mean up to 20 years. The hacking charge was relatively minor by comparison to the obstruction of justice. He should be punished, but as a likely first time offender he will likely not get the book thrown at him.

Sidenote, he did the US a public service by exposing the fact that the republican party did not get her a properly firewalled email service during her candidacy. He should get a medal for exposing that incompetence.

[endboss]

You've got to love America's legal system. We give these huge punishments to juvenile hackers, pot heads, and people who pirate songs, while we let off murderers early for good behavior and house child molesters next to schools.

USA! USA!

[Siberys]

Well that's because crimes like pirating are mild, and thus it's quite obvious everyone is aware of their actions, but murder is so severe that they must be crazy to do it.

It makes perfect sense that a man who, in a blind fit of rage after catching his wife cheating on him, kills his wife and the other man and gets off on good behavior. Yeah, killing someone out of rage must be far less of a "Death" than killing someone by planning to kill them.


I agree with the sentiment that 20 years is insane despite him deserving a punishment. I say one year and a firm kick in the nads by Palin herself.

[Stworca]

You've got to love America's legal system. We give these huge punishments to juvenile hackers, pot heads, and people who pirate songs, while we let off murderers early for good behavior and house child molesters next to schools.

USA! USA!

It is like that everywhere

In Poland a baker who was helping the poor (via giving the bread to homeless at the end of the day. Bread that he would throw away otherwise) got f*cked by the taxes, as if he was selling the bread. He had to close the bakery and swims in loans now.

While our beloved and well known priest Tadeos Rydzyk (damn it, my name is Tadeos too!) gets funded by the tax money all the damn time, even tho every single person knows how much of a lying, stealing scum he is.

Murderers with good lawyers get out after 5 years, while people who steal a can of bier get 10.

..erm.. not to mention priests getting out instantly for any crime that they could've commited. If needed, under differend names in differend cities / countries.

...and ofcourse women getting stoned for getting raped in our favourite parts of the world..

'Tis a f*cked up world we live in

[Tricky]

That's more than people can get for murder in the Netherlands..