Palin webmail hacker conviction upheld

The conviction of a former University of Tennessee student for breaking into Sarah Palin's webmail account during the 2008 presidential election campaign has been upheld. David Kernell was found guilty of computer hacking and obstruction of justice at a trial in April, during which he was acquitted of identity theft and wire …

[Zippy the Pinhead]

its not a prank

Its not a prank if you don't know the person. He hacked the account then tried to delete the evidence. He broke a federal law and then he cried when he got caught. Sorry not a prank

[Anonymous Coward]

I misread that

..as "more than a plank", which surely seems to be too much praise for La Palin.

[The BigYin]

And when will Palin...

...face the beak for use of Yahoo for Federal business?

No one should be above the law.

[Anonymous Coward]

How U do

...federal bidness as a state governor?

[Pablo]

Title goes here

I still think that obstruction charge is *incredibly* unfair. Doesn't every crime, save the very dumbest I suppose, involve some effort to "obstruct justice" (i.e. not get caught)? If I steal a bagel and when confronted by shop keeper say "no, it must have been someone else" is that really worth an extra 20 years?

This is an extremely transparent attempt to upgrade a petty crime to a felony just because this kid crossed the wrong people.

[EJ]

Complete and utter BS

There's no way this kid should be doing time. Probation? Sure. Fines? Sure. Jail time? Ridiculous waste of taxpayer money. And how are the charges against Palin for violating rules for conducting state business through a personal email account coming along?

[Alex Wells]

Absolutely

"federal sentencing guidelines suggest...somewhere between 15 to 21 months"

You what????? Jail time at all is an over-reaction.. arguably I suppose if he'd actually attempted to use the account to do something nefarious, maybe a custodial sentence. But a year+ for this? Just crazy, criminalisation in action.

[neil 15]

Reward him

If it did have a detrimental affect on her election campaign, then he is in line for a medal, That fact the people actually vote for that woman is a truly scary prospect.

[Zippy the Pinhead]

Stop making excuses

No double standards... No excuses!

I don't care who's account he hacked, the guy committed a FEDERAL Crime breaking into someone else's email. I don't care if it was a joke or he thought it was funny or even if he did not intend to do harm. The facts of the matter was he knowingly hacked into someone's email account. Its a crime and the proper punishment should be dealt out.