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A missing underscore sent innocent man to prison for 18 months

arstechnica.com

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Re: A missing underscore sent innocent man to prison for 18 months

#22

Post by thephyber »

protocolture wrote: post #3
silisili wrote: post #2

This is completely dystopian. Did he have the worst legal defense possible, or are Canadian laws such that an IP address is sufficient for any claimed charges to just stick?

I am betting the judge accepted all the messages as evidence, and that was enough to convict. Theres no one technical in a court room.

The messages ARE evidence for a case. They are the proof that a crime happened. The problem is that they don't tie the defendant to the acts.

The lawyers aren't supposed to be technical, but they should know their limitations and hire technical experts. But that also assumes the defendant can afford the defense, which is insanely expensive.

Re: A missing underscore sent innocent man to prison for 18 months

#23

Post by thephyber »

whiterock wrote: post #5

Perhaps there should be input fields that are paste-only, no typing allowed (or only with extra modal warnings).

Who is "they"?

Police generally have to send faxes to companies for subpoenas, except for the few mega techs who have digital portals built specifically for police subpoenas. Source: I worked for a company who received subpoenas via fax.

Re: A missing underscore sent innocent man to prison for 18 months

#24

Post by ttctciyf »

We're really getting into Computers Don't Argue[0] territory here, eh?

0: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computers_Don%27t_Argue

(available in Best of Creative Computing Vol. 2 at https://dn790007.ca.archive.org/0/items/bestofcreativeco00ah... , p.133)

Re: A missing underscore sent innocent man to prison for 18 months

#26

Post by greenavocado »

xnx wrote: post #14
silisili wrote: post #2

This is completely dystopian. Did he have the worst legal defense possible, or are Canadian laws such that an IP address is sufficient for any claimed charges to just stick?

I hope this guy gets better lawyers when he sues everyone involved.

It'll be thrown out by the JustUs system when a judge will declare the lawsuit has "no standing."

Re: A missing underscore sent innocent man to prison for 18 months

#30

Post by thephyber »

If you read it carefully, the victim was in the US and the defendant was in Canada (I suspect a rural part).

I think everyone is rightly questioning why the defendant's lawyers failed to tear apart the prosecution's case. This generally requires that the defendant have money, the defendant hire a competent criminal defense attorney, and the attorney hires a team of experts to rigorously challenge all of the evidence.

Here is some additional Canadian news coverage: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/how-a-single-unde...

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