Judge Tentatively Dismisses Case Against Lori Drew

An anonymous reader writes "According to Wired, 'A federal judge on Thursday overturned guilty verdicts against Lori Drew, and issued a directed acquittal on the three misdemeanor charges.'" A similar story in the L.A. Times notes that "The decision by US District Judge George H. Wu will not become final until his written ruling is filed, probably next week." Update: 07/02 21:15 GMT by T : For those not following, Lori Drew's three convictions sprang from charges of online harassment of Megan Meier, a Missouri teenager whose suicide was linked to Drew's actions.

Comments

HMMM?

[Anonymous Coward]

"God forbid the family would take any responsibility for ignoring their own daughter to the point where she was forced to seek validation from anonymous strangers on the internet."

'Nuff said.

Re:HMMM?

[Amouth]

and if i remember correct the dead girl was bulling Drew's daughter.. could it not be part her fault.

while i agree and eye for an eye makes the world blind - what happened and the reaction to it is nothing more than the same

- THE only reason this became what it was - was the girl killed her self... the excuse of "bags of hormones" isn't and excuse... is it this person? or the parents ignoring her? or the rest of the school being asses? what caused her to kill her self? why is it relevant to this lady getting a felony conviction for computer hacking?

while i agree what this lady did was not something you would want to happen - there where no laws broken. the Judge's reasoning is very sound on this.

Re:first post

[religious freak]

Did the world suddenly turn to brighter colors? Are you now able to think faster, have better sex and talk to the animals? Because that's what happened when I got my first first post.

Re:They should have found a more appropriate charg

[Anonymous Coward]

Antidamage: She had a calculated plan to drive a child to kill herself. The bitch needs to face the consequences.

I agree. She needs to face consequences.

whiledo: If we decide she can be imprisoned based simply on her speech, it's is not just her but we who will face the consequences.

I agree with this too. She doesn't need to be imprisoned. That's far too good for her and also sets a dangerous precedent.

A far better consequence would be if the cunt is hounded and harassed until she takes her own life to make it stop.

Re:first post

[Anonymous Coward]

Bullshit, people have have sex, do not give a fuck to First posts. True Story.

Re:They should have found a more appropriate charg

[sexconker]

"Judges HATE setting precedents"

Sotomayor says hi.

Re:Only on Slashdot...

[Wowlapalooza]

Oh, please. This case raised serious issues of law and public policy. It wasn't just Slashdot "basement-dwelling libertarian morons" who spoke out against the government's actions here. http://www.citmedialaw.org/blog/2008/berkman-cyberlaw-clinic-eff-and-net-law-luminaries-file-amicus-brief-lori-drew-case:

In light of the dangerous expansion of the CFAA and the serious First Amendment and due process concerns raised by the case, a coalition of public interest organizations and individual Internet law professors today filed an amicus curiae brief in support of Drew's motion to dismiss the indictment. Some of the coalition members include EFF, Public Citizen, Center for Democracy & Technology, Lauren Gelman, Eric Goldman, Mark A. Lemley, and Daniel J. Solove. Phil Malone of the Berkman Cyberlaw Clinic and Jennifer Granick of EFF represent the coalition.

Feel free to indulge your primal "WE MUST PUNISH HER!" emotions, but some of us are ruled by reason and logic and a sense of proportion and caution with regard to the long-term consequences of our actions.

Re:They should have found a more appropriate charg

[Hognoxious]

This woman, an adult, had a relationship with a child, a real child, assaulted her causing emotional distress and eventually contributing to the child's death. If I were the lawyer

You are.

Oh sorry, my mistake. I thought that said "liar".