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Google Searches Used in Murder Trial?

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the thought-police dept.

mcrbids writes "Well, the details are a bit scant, but it seems that the content of Google searches were used to help establish intent in a murder trial. Will police in the future simply serve a subpoena to Google to find out what you've been thinking about? While this use of that information makes sense, at what point does your privacy give way to public concerns? Should police be able to search through your search history for "questionable" searches before you've been arrested for a crime, and what effect would this have on the health of society?"

7 of 260 comments (clear)

  1. moronic question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Will police subpoena google? No, because in this case, the
    search history was recovered from the local hard drive.

  2. RTFA by Jeian · · Score: 5, Informative

    The information on the searches came from his browser history, not from Google.

  3. What an inflammatory submission... by Jester99 · · Score: 4, Informative
    "Details are sketchy...?"

    From the article:

    "More than two years after Janine Sutphen's body was discovered floating in a Raleigh lake, investigators continue to find new evidence on computers seized from Robert Petrick's home that prosecutors say support their arguments that Petrick killed his wife.

    The Google search was the latest in recently discovered evidence found in the 100 million pages of content removed from computers"


    In other words, they looked at the files on his computer as evidence. That's been done for ... years now. Said files happened to contain browser history. Not much news here.

    Might they subpoena google in the future? Maybe, but that hasn't happened yet...
  4. Re:Searched by ndansmith · · Score: 4, Informative
    More than two years after Janine Sutphen's body was discovered floating in a Raleigh lake, investigators continue to find new evidence on computers seized from Robert Petrick's home that prosecutors say support their arguments that Petrick killed his wife.

    Last week, a forensic investigator discovered that Petrick allegedly researched lake levels, water currents, boat ramps and access about Falls Lake just four days before he reported Sutphen missing on Jan. 22, 2003.
    ~http://www.wral.com/news/5287261/detail.html

    Yes, the info was found on his hard drive, not acquired from Google or his ISP or anywhere else.

  5. Re:Obvious Answer by Yottabyte84 · · Score: 5, Informative

    According to the article, this information was recoverd from his computer.

  6. Re:Subpoenas by kaufmanmoore · · Score: 3, Informative

    He was arrested based on evidence such as a neuse being found at his home, he has contridicted himself in his testimony, other searches revealed on his computer were for boat ramp and current info for the lake where the body was found and cadaver dogs picked up on scents at his house. He has already been found guilty of fraud for using his wife's name to obtain a loan after her dissappearance. Those are just the things to come out in the first week of testimony

  7. You need a reminder? by TCQuad · · Score: 4, Informative

    You mean you've forgotten about this already???