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Hans Reiser in Court Today
An anonymous reader writes "Hans Reiser has pled not guilty to murdering his wife and invoked his right to a speedy trial. He will attend a hearing today where the judge will decide if the state has a case " We had covered this story back when it had first broke; and for those of you playing catch-up, Hans is the author of ReiserFS.
He didn't directly kill her... He was trying to explain why reiserfs was better than ext4 and her head exploded.
See, there's no reason to fear abandonment of the Reiser FS if this dude gets locked up.
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
That would presume that the function of prison is to rehabilitate people into useful members society, rather than to exact emotionally driven revenge through punishment.
Nina's boyfriend Sean Sturgeon allegedly practices BDSM, raped Nina, engages in "death yoga", made death threats against Hans, cheated with a married woman, and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from Hans Reiser:
h tml
http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_256204954.
Hans Reiser, on the other hand, is a linux developer.
Guess which one the cops arrested and which one isn't even a suspect?
Personally I like the fact that national media leaves a lot of local stories uncovered. It gives the accused a chance to have an unbiased jury, though a change of venue may be required. If they're cleared, the minimal media slam means they can rebuild elsewhere after the page 2 apologies fails to change the minds of those who "know" they're guilty.
Papparatzi chasing famous people while they make fools of themselves in public is one thing. That same mentality destroying careers on the basis of accusation instead of conviction is not what "freedom of speech" was ever about.
Canadian courts typically restrict publication from the initial hearing onwards. The only time you see further information is if the defense is making preliminary statements about their planned approach, especially if they expect to raise constitutional or human rights issues. That serves to warn the bar that there may be a precedence case coming up.
I hope the accusations turn out false, but Hans' infamous temper isn't going to help him with this argument.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Lemme guess... You're a Digg reader? If so, go away. Yes the James Kim story was very tragic and I feel very much for the family. But based on the idiotic level of commentary that popped up on Digg regarding the story, I think it's better than Slashdot DIDN'T cover the story. Why? Because we'd be getting retards like you trying to use it to make points about god knows what. There were too many people on Digg who spent time talking about how THEY would have NEVER done X, Y, and Z and their families would have been home by dinner time with fresh bear meat. I'm sorry, but taking nature survival classes, knowing how to hunt, or experience on a farm will NOT save you in the situation that James Kim was in. Think about it. He had no idea if help was coming, so he ventured out hoping that he'd be able to make some headway. He TRIED. He probably did it because he didn't want to come off like he didn't know what to do to his family. He wanted to make an effort rather than just sitting there twiddling his thumbs hoping for help that may never come. To be honest, no matter how you look at it, he succeeded in saving his family. He at least knew enough to NOT take his family with him and risk their lives too. And you know what? THEY'RE ALIVE thanks to that decision. He had a 50/50 chance no matter how you look at it and he made the best decision he could under that kind of pressure. So basically, I think all Digg readers should fuck off.
Regarding Reiser, as much as it pains me, I think I have accepted that unless they can really clear him of the picture painted by the circumstantial evidence, he's up shit creek. If he did kill her, then he deserves it. A lot of arrogant geeks seem to think they are godlike and that they can get away with anything. It's possible that he fits that standard mold to a T. If he didn't do it, then his side had damn well better find proof because that's what it's going to take at this point. The speedy trial thing actually has me worried. While it's something that I believe everyone should be guaranteed, I also know that it's possible that with the right lawyer he could get away with murder on a technicality. That would not be right, but it's not like it hasn't happened before. Crimes of passion can be quite ugly and I think they do throw the perpetrators mentally out of whack for life. If he did do it, he's certainly got internal demons that will follow him for all the days of his life. Sadly, based on his biography, I'd say he seems to be a perfect fit for the type of arrogant geek who thinks they can get away with anything as long as they plan it well enough. That kind of geek needs to be knocked down the entire set of ladder rungs and then have their face ground into the dirt and through the other side of the planet. Maybe then their overinflated egos will be right sized to a humble enough level. Note that I feel I can say this because I AM a geek and I do believe I have limitations which I happily accept.
I'm perfectly content with punishment, but come on:
The United States has the most people in prison of any country in the world--including China, Russia, and the third-world countries we like to lambaste as having no respect for law.
The rate of people in US prisons--737 per 100,000--is the highest in the world. It is roughly seven times the average rate in other western countries of the world.
I'm fairly certain our numbers with regard to some countries (China, etc) are not wholly accurate, but there's obviously an issue here, particularly as we compare our rates to other western nations.
In the face of numbers like that, it's incredibly hard to support your contention that we've had some "liberal policy" of justice for "decades." (Article here with these facts; you can find it from any number of other sources as well. I'm pretty sure I read it on Yahoo News from the AP a few days ago.)
The US has always been conservative on the issue of justice. Punishments are getting harsher, not more lenient. We still execute people--and I'm not interested in debating whether that is right or wrong, merely pointing it out as a difference between us and most other western countries, and it's hard to deny that executions are the harshest form of justice short of torture, which isn't really justice at all.
That's mainly because of the bullshit drug war though. If you remove drug "crimes" we'd have a lot less people in prison.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
er, ALL of the points seem to be hearsay from the article. All were claims by Hans, and nothing was reported to substantiate those claims.
I'm sure the police would have looked at her current love interest, and apparently they didn't find cause to suspect him as much as Reiser.
Well, in Finland we don't throw "illegal" evidence out of court. Instead we just punish the person(s) who did this illegal activity. This keeps the government, or representatives of that government, following the rules and doesn't allow criminals to get free on technicality. Ofcourse this just might be a scandinavian thing as we generally don't think that our governments require any extra effort to keep them in line, they seem to do quite well on their own.
- Raynet --> .