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Palin's E-Mail Hacker Imprisoned Against Judge's Wishes
Em Adespoton writes "It was a computer security story that made headlines around the world, involving the private emails of a woman who could have become Vice President of the United States. And now, it's ended with a young man sent to a federal prison, hundreds of miles from his family home. David C Kernell, the hacker who broke into Sarah Palin's personal Yahoo email account, is reported to have been sent to jail despite a judge's recommendation that he should not be put behind bars."
Not even cracked. Please stop talking about this guy like he has some computer wiizardry - he guessed at recovery questions. If I leave a riddle taped to my safe that gives the combo when solved, how angry can I be when somebody figures it out?
I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
I speak from first hand experience that even if you're innocent, the system will do their best to get their hands on you in the worst possible way if they want to make you pay for something, possibly unrelated. For me it was a friend who did stupid stuff and I was trying to talk him out of it. The caught me on a technicality and got me in jail and then "accidentally" shipped me off to a medium security prison where I stood toe to toe with a guy who was facing 246 years(that is not a typo). All just to make me talk. I never did..fuck 'em.
If the Judge didn't want him to go to prison maybe he shouldn't have sentenced him to prison time...
The account he broke into was being used by Palin to conduct state business that she wanted to hide from being recorded in her official state email account.
Just a reminder.
He's going to a minimum or low security facility, which is typically almost completely unsecured, and has a focus on work and job programs. We are not talking about "hard time" here. He'll be serving alongside white-collar criminals, not exactly a dangerous bunch.
From the BOP web site:
And since the article calls it low security, but references the prison camp, he might be housed at either the low or min- security facility. Here's a description of the type of facility he's going to:
Yes, there were job-related e-mails in there that according to the law have to go into a government repository and for some reason she didn't want those messages to go on record. She was not punished for this.
Likewise she will not get punished for inciting violence and shootings, for being just plain dumb or for the air time she squandered with her show.
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Sure he should be held accountable, but sending the kid to an institution where he is more likely to be released into a world of criminality with contacts that may like to exploit his rudimentary skills is probably not serving the best interests of his community.
Posting anonymously, for obvious reasons. According to the BOP's inmate locator, David Kernell is at FCI Ashland, which has an adjoining camp (FPC Ashland). He's almost assuredly at the camp since he's a non-violent criminal with less than a year until his release. I don't believe you can be at a camp if you have more than 5 years until your release.
I spent a few months at a camp and it wasn't too bad, for being prison. Everybody was just trying to do their time and get home. No gang fights. I never once had people asking me how to pull off some new crime. We played a lot of cards, and I read a lot of books, and played a lot of piano and guitar. It was a learning experience, seeing that we were all just a bunch of normal people who made some bad choices and who wanted to get home.
Sure you don't get a say, but I find it a little surprising that the judge's recommendation was ignored.
It wasn't ignored. However, it's just a recommendation, not a mandate. If the judge didn't want him in prison, he should have probated the sentence.
-Restil
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The system we have is descended from the mode of Christian thought that when a sin(crime) is committed, penance.is needed in order to make the person right with God.
A more Christian thought regarding penance is "Go, and sin no more." the roman catholic version of penance is not Christian in origin.
Folks, take a look at the charges he was convicted of. Then think about this sentence.
Mr. Kernell was convicted of two charges. For breaking into Sarah Palin's email account, he was convicted of a misdemeanor for unlawful computer access. But a misdemeanor isn't enough payback for embarrassing one of the political elite. So he was also charged with a felony account of obstruction of justice. The FBI says that he erased data off of his computer. Specifically, he deleted his copies of Palin's emails, and then defragged his disk. He also cleared his browser history.
Well, duh. The kid did something stupid. When he saw what an uproar he had created, he tried to make it all go away. Wow, that really is grounds for a federal felony charge.
This isn't justice folks. This is payback for embarrassing one of our betters.
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