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Hans Reiser To Reveal Location of Wife's Body

dlgeek writes "The story of Hans Reiser is well known to all Slashdotters by now. Some still placed doubts about the conviction, stating that he might be innocent. It now seems that all doubt has been quelled, since Alameda County District Attorney Thomas Orloff has revealed that Hans Reiser will disclose the location of Nina's body for a reduced sentence. The deal is not yet finalized, though. 'There's been some overtures,' Orloff said, 'But everything is in its preliminary stage.' The deal would reduce his conviction from first degree to second degree murder. In addition, an anonymous source close to the situation said that 'the only real leverage he has is if he can provide a body. He really doesn't have any options left. Even if he won a retrial somehow, he'd likely be convicted.'"

13 of 882 comments (clear)

  1. Re:*sigh* by Atlantis-Rising · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I guess this marks the end of ReiserFS. I'm sure no one in the Linux community wants to be associated to that piece of work.

    Which, while it might be true, is still stupid.

    Imagine if Albert Einstein had accepted the position of leader of Israel after World War II and ordered some massive war crime, like say slaughtering the Arabs with nukes.

    Would we just toss aside General Relativity, never to see it again, because we don't want to be associated with the author?
    --
    "It is possible to commit no errors and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life." -Peak Performance
  2. Let's wait until he does cough it up. by tjstork · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've got the troll points for arguing that he was guilty from the get-go, and I think that he is. But, in this case, I think before those people who supported him jump off of a mental cliff, let's let the DA actually deliver the body and the proof of Hans's cooperation. The story is believable enough, but, let's let the DA PROVE it first.

    --
    This is my sig.
  3. reasonable doubt by nguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wow I feel like a moron for have ever attempted to defend Hans online at all.

    You shouldn't. To most people, even people who "defended" him, it was more likely than not that he was guilty. But the legal criterion is "beyond a reasonable doubt". I think based on the publicly released evidence, there was still a reasonable doubt.

    I still don't feel really comfortable with jurors making decisions based on "looking into people's eyes", as one of the jurors was saying; given how many people believe in astrology, mind reading, new age, and other supernatural stuff, I think there there's a lot of potential for bad decision making there. And there are, indeed, lots of wrongful convictions, so it's not like the system is working perfectly.

    Still, it looks like the jurors were right on this one.

    1. Re:reasonable doubt by alcmaeon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I still don't feel really comfortable with jurors making decisions based on "looking into people's eyes"

      Frankly, that bothers me a whole hell of a lot less than the fact that he was convicted of murder without any significant evidence his wife was dead as opposed to simply missing.

  4. Re:*sigh* by Xiph1980 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ReiserFS is maybe created by a murderer, but that doesn't mean it's bad. Hans Reiser may have comitted an intolerable crime, but if you would rob yourself of what might be the best filesystem for your application, it would just be a bloody shame. In my opinion using ReiserFS doesn't immediately mean you agree with his actions. It just mean that you prefer ReiserFS over other systems.

    This being said though, I prefer ZFS myself :)

    Also, considering Microsoft has so many employees, I have no doubt, that there have been people working there that comitted far worse than a crime of passion. Doesn't mean that the product is bad... Well, okay it is, but not because of some employee going nuts.
    Besides, I think there are many CEO's or CFO's or any C?O's out there that have comitted far worse than a single murder, like Shell pumping oil in africa, killing thousands knowingly by pollution. If you'd go your route, you wouldn't be able to get groceries anymore in a normal fasion, because the truck getting the groceries might have filled it up with diesel at a shell.

    --
    Manuals are your last resort only
  5. this reminds me of oj simpson by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Insightful

    oj simpson's case was skewered in this country by race. that is, more black people tended to think of oj as innocent, and more white people thought of him as guilty

    the hans reiser case reveals that techies suffer this same sort of prejudice as black people concerning oj simpson. had this guy not authored a file system,

    1. no one would care about this case
    2. most would assume his guilt

    a lot pof people here think of themselves as intelligent and unbiased. if you assumed reiser's innocence, take a good har dlook in the mirror. tribal-level prejudice flows in your veins

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  6. Re:*sigh* by afxgrin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In the end the article just says the judge assumes Hans will reveal the body to reduce the sentence. The summary is bad for this article.

    Hognoxious hit that detail on the head

    "Well if the DA says it then it must be true! I mean a DA is a kind of lawyer, right?"

    Alright alright, I'll RTFA before posting next time.

  7. Re:Am I missing something or by jimicus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It sounds like they're in discussions about it. Presumably the DA wouldn't leak something about a deal of that nature unless he's really bad at his job. I would think that kind of publicity from the DA could earn him some censure, at he very least. But there's no hint as to what direction those discussions are taking. Right now, for all we know the discussions are along the lines of:

    Prosecutor: Come on, you've been found guilty. Your only hope of improving your situation even slightly is to admit you did it and tell us where the body is.
    Reiser: Didn't do it.
    (lather, rinse and repeat)
  8. Re:*sigh* by afxgrin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There is no confession. Just speculation that he will.

  9. Re:Am I missing something or by domatic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I thought the point of prison was to punish and correct the guilty and get them back into working order.



    That can be a point of prison but there are at least four not always compatible reasons from prison:

    1. Deterrence.
    2. Reformation.
    3. Punishment.
    4. Removal.

    Ultra long sentences serve 1,3, and 4 at the expense of 2. Furthermore, reform tends to get lip service at best in the US. We're generally a revenge minded lot Who Want Criminals Off The Street And Thinking Twice About Messing Up.
  10. Re:World's Greatest Detective by Andrzej+Sawicki · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why not? They learned it the hard way.

  11. Re:*sigh* by Gilmoure · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Our German scientists were better than the Russian's German scientists.

    --
    I drank what? -- Socrates
  12. WRONG BITCH! by Ultra64 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can't think of any language or system offhand in which NULL implies zero. What are you referring to?

    #ifdef __cplusplus
    #define NULL 0
    #else
    #define NULL ((void *)0)
    #endif

    More about NULL