Terry Childs conviction

Fri Apr 30 01:04:39 UTC 2010

Henry Linneweh wrote:
> Anytime you mess with a government entity, without legal guidance, you are at
> great risk. Mr.Childs took a risk and jury decided he was wrong. He faces
> 5 years in prison.

Unlikely.
 From the article:

"However, Judge Teri Jackson is expected to impose a sentence under 
which Childs would serve a few additional months at most, after she 
gives him credit for the nearly two years he has spent in county jail 
since being arrested in July 2008"

I didn't know jury trials went this way, if a juror doesn't agree you 
simply kick the person out. You learn something new every day. :-)

"The jury deliberated for several days before a lone holdout against 
conviction was removed from the panel, for reasons that were not 
disclosed. After an alternate was put in that juror's place, the panel 
started over and reached a decision in a matter of hours."

And one can argue he behaved like any security conscious IT person 
should behave, although I'm sure in this case the truth lies more in the 
middle:

"Shikman acknowledged that Childs may have been "paranoid" about 
protecting the system and undiplomatic with his bosses, but nothing worse
(..)
"All they had to do was ask him (for the passwords) in a secure and 
professional way, consistent with policy and standards," Shikman told 
the jury."

Regards,
Jeroen

-- 
http://goldmark.org/jeff/stupid-disclaimers/