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So Much For The Fifth Amendment: Man Jailed For Seven Months For Not Turning Over Password
Tech Dirt ^ | 28 April 2016 | Tim Cushing

Posted on 05/03/2016 8:45:34 AM PDT by Lorianne

The FBI recently spent more than $1 million for assistance in decrypting a device's contents. It may have overpaid. Alternatives exist, whether it's a $5 wrench or indefinite imprisonment for not helping the government with its prosecution efforts.

A Philadelphia man suspected of possessing child pornography has been in jail for seven months and counting after being found in contempt of a court order demanding that he decrypt two password-protected hard drives.

The suspect, a former Philadelphia Police Department sergeant, has not been charged with any child porn crimes. Instead, he remains indefinitely imprisoned in Philadelphia's Federal Detention Center for refusing to unlock two drives encrypted with Apple's FileVault software in a case that once again highlights the extent to which the authorities are going to crack encrypted devices. The man is to remain jailed "until such time that he fully complies" with the decryption order.

(Excerpt) Read more at techdirt.com ...


TOPICS: Government
KEYWORDS: 5thamendment; fifthamendment
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...

from the FRchives, an old series posted for the Gods, Graves, Glyphs ping list:
  1. the 1st Amendment
  2. the 2nd Amendment
  3. the 3rd Amendment
  4. the 4th Amendment
  5. the 5th Amendment
  6. the 6th Amendment
  7. the 7th Amendment
  8. the 8th Amendment
  9. the 9th Amendment
  10. the 10th Amendment
  11. the 11th Amendment
  12. the 12th Amendment
  13. the 13th Amendment
  14. the 14th Amendment
  15. the 15th Amendment
  16. the 16th Amendment
  17. the 17th Amendment
  18. the 18th Amendment
  19. the 19th Amendment
  20. the 20th Amendment
  21. the 21st Amendment
  22. the 22nd Amendment
  23. the 23rd Amendment
  24. the 24th Amendment
  25. the 25th Amendment
  26. the 26th Amendment
  27. the 27th Amendment

21 posted on 05/03/2016 10:08:28 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)
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To: taxcontrol
I’m with you on this one. No 4th violation as there is a legal warrant. However, being required to supply evidence to the prosecution does seem to violate the 5th.

Even if a clever lawyer can win the argument that it doesn't violate the letter of the 5th, it still violates the spirit of the 5th. Compelling someone to actively assist in their own prosecution is sufficiently distasteful that it should be out of bounds regardless of legalistic quibbling.

22 posted on 05/03/2016 10:23:35 AM PDT by Pollster1 (Somebody who agrees with me 80% of the time is a friend and ally, not a 20% traitor. - Ronald Reagan)
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To: thoughtomator
Rather perverse that a man can be jailed for refusing to cooperate with his own prosecution.

I think it illustrates the depth to which our legal systems has fallen pretty well.

23 posted on 05/03/2016 10:31:08 AM PDT by zeugma (Woohoo! It looks like I'll get to vote for an abrasive clown for president!)
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To: Pollster1
They are purposely trying to force him to incriminate himself: "ANYTHING you say can AND WILL BE USED AGAINST YOU IN A COURT OF LAW!"

If he is guilty it us up to the prosecution to prove it, "beyond a reasonable doubt". It is not up to the accused to do "the States" job for them. If they want it unlocked... let them do it themselves.

24 posted on 05/03/2016 10:33:05 AM PDT by Jmouse007 (Lord God Almighty, deliver us from this evil in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, amen.)
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To: Lorianne

So, he was not jailed for not turning over his password, as the lying headline says.
This is like opening a safe. If the court can order someone to open a safe (search done with warrant), then they can order someone to decrypt data.
He was jailed for not complying with the search warrant (court order).
Headlines should not aim for sensationalism, but for a clear statement of the facts.


25 posted on 05/03/2016 10:35:02 AM PDT by I want the USA back (The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it. Orwell.)
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To: Lorianne
What happened to his fifth amendment protection against self-incrimination? Let the state find some other way to convict him.

-PJ

26 posted on 05/03/2016 10:37:01 AM PDT by Political Junkie Too (If you are the Posterity of We the People, then you are a Natural Born Citizen.)
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To: drypowder

To be technical the poor bozo violated his parole.


27 posted on 05/03/2016 10:53:57 AM PDT by Organic Panic
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To: I want the USA back

So the penalty for not complying with the search order is to be jailed forever? Seems disproportionate at first glance.


28 posted on 05/03/2016 11:00:44 AM PDT by monkeybrau
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To: Pollster1

How about water-boarding him until he spills the password? It’s not torture, after all... /s?


29 posted on 05/03/2016 11:01:23 AM PDT by Moltke (Reasoning with a liberal is like watering a rock in the hope to grow a building)
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To: I want the USA back
So, he was not jailed for not turning over his password, as the lying headline says.
This is like opening a safe. If the court can order someone to open a safe (search done with warrant), then they can order someone to decrypt data.
He was jailed for not complying with the search warrant (court order).
Headlines should not aim for sensationalism, but for a clear statement of the facts.

_____________________________________________________

Wrong!

Courts have already decided that you don't have to unlock a door or a safe, the prosecution can break the door down with whatever means they want when they have a warrant however. The same is true here, they have the drive(s) let them have at it. If there was a code that you kept your personal notes in could you be required to decrypt it, heavens no, that would be self incrimination. I say he should keep his mouth shut even if he is a pervert. Let the law figure it out.

Our 1st 10 amendments have already been watered down too much.

30 posted on 05/03/2016 11:38:48 AM PDT by JAKraig (my religion is at least as good as yours)
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To: Lorianne

In addition to strong encryption, we need devices that you can set up with two passwords. The one that locks the device, and the one that shreds everything immediately, perhaps even physically torching the drive.


31 posted on 05/03/2016 12:25:27 PM PDT by BlueMondaySkipper (Involuntarily subsidizing the parasite class since 1981)
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