Palin E-Mail Snoop Gets Year In Prison

netbuzz writes "David Kernell, whose prying into Sarah Palin's personal e-mail account caused an uproar two months before the 2008 presidential election, was today sentenced to a year and a day by a judge in Knoxville, Tenn. Kernell was convicted of misdemeanor computer fraud and felony obstruction of justice back in April. His attorney had argued for probation on the grounds that what Kernell did amounted to a prank that spun out of control."

Comments

Sentence

[UninformedCoward]

I am pretty sure the actual sentence was 1 year 1 day in custody; to be served at a halfway house.

The local source - http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=13490313&Call=Email&Format=HTML

Re:As I recall

[DurendalMac]

Do you see "hacking" in there? He was convicted of computer fraud as he accessed an account that was not his. He also got busted for obstruction of justice by panicking and wiping his drive, which is what landed him the real jail time.

Re:Year and a day?

[Moridineas]

Or, as the article says, he was sentenced:

by a judge who recommended that the time be served in a Knoxville, Tenn. halfway house

A little bit different!!

He should have been a rich banker

[Anonymous Coward]

Rich banker gets to escape felony hit and run charges, because the judge felt "a felony charge would hurt his ability to make shit tons of money"

http://dailybail.com/home/outrage-morgan-stanley-banker-escapes-felony-charges-for-hit.html

Re:Year and a day?

[cduffy]

Because jails often can only hold people for one year. They give that extra day so he goes to prison instead of jail. ie. it's a worse punishment.

Actually, no, it's a more lenient sentence -- a year and a day means you're eligible for sentence reductions based on good behavior and the like; any less and you aren't.

Re:Given that this is Slashdot

[brkello]

I don't think you know Slashdot very well at all. It is primarily a Libertarian site. I don't think they would react any different if someone hacked in to some Democrat governor's site.
 
Yeah, violating someone's privacy is wrong. But does it deserve a year in prison? That is what people are objecting to...the overly harsh penalties assigned to crimes regarding computers. The less famous/rich you are the higher the chance you will serve a more severe sentence.
 
And seriously, try not to be such a partisan douche in the future.

Rich HP Pretexter vs. Poor Student Pretexter

[theodp]

HP Pretexting Charges Dismissed: "Charges against defendants in the Hewlett-Packard pretexting case have been dismissed."

Depends on whether the offender obstructs justice

[Quila]

Note he only got a misdemeanor, a slap on the wrist, for the actual computer fraud.

The government does not take obstruction of justice lightly and tends to give stiff sentences for it.

Aside from that, yes, an attack on an account for political gain to influence an election would reasonably bring a more severe punishment than simply doing it to see if you can. This wasn't just some kid. His dad is a powerful Democratic state legislator and was then a member of Obama's Tennessee campaign. I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't doing dad's bidding, and is taking the fall to avoid ruining dad's career. Expect to see the payoff after this clears up, likely a well-paid position in a Democratic campaign in 2012.

Personally, I think he deserves extra time just for being stupid by using a single proxy that had a policy of turning over evidence of any illegal activity to the police. :)

Re:As I recall

[amicusNYCL]

http://gawker.com/5051193/sarah-palins-personal-emails

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/09/AR2008090903044.html

http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/32838

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/erik-ose/sarah-palins-yahoo-e-mail_b_127177.html

http://www.google.com/search?client=opera&rls=en&q=sarah+palin+emails+government+business&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8