"In a victory for free speech and property rights, Jeremy Hammond was sentenced to two years in federal prison to begin in January 2007. He must also pay $5,250 in fines and restitution and is barred from consorting with other "hacktivists" for three years following his sentence. Despite the light sentence, Hammond's imprisonment will undoubtedly send a message to would-be hackers that property rights and rule of law still apply.
The light sentence may be explained by unusual statements of fact and character that were made by Judge James B. Zagel during the sentencing hearing. As reported in the Chicago Tribune, Zagel brushed aside Hammond's plans to rob victims out of millions of dollars as a lapse in judgment rather than willful and malicious credit card fraud, saying, "all 19-year-olds are idiots." He also characterized the theft itself as "countering speech [Hammond] found wrong ." Considering Hammond's history of violence and crime, Zagel's bizarrely euphemistic characterization of Hammond's actions reveals a misplaced compassion.
Before Hammond's trial, he used the now-defunct website freejeremy to plead with the Internet community for support. In his pathetic attempt to sway public opinion, he denied the allegations and claimed that he was "being targetted [sic] by law enforcement for his political activism." Hammond even went so far as to accuse ProtestWarrior of fabricating the entire story. Fortunately, the evidence against him was so strong that even the most "compassionate" judge couldn't save him from a conviction.
During the course of the investigation, ProtestWarrior intercepted a number of chat logs between Hammond and his anarchist cohorts. The logs include detailed plots to charge millions of dollars in fraudulent transactions, to publish personal and financial details of political activists, and to execute similar attacks on other conservative websites. Now that the trial is over and Hammond is about to be thrown in prison, ProtestWarrior is preparing these logs for release to the public.
The ProtestWarrior organization is currently being revamped, both online and on the streets. And a new PW project is in the works, so stay tuned."
I remember the moonbats getting a chuckle out of that. At least one of them isn't chuckling now. LOL
A slap on the wrist. It will have no deterrent effect whatsoever.
Do you have a link to the actual Trib article?
What an unbalanced start to a "news" report. If they wanted to show a hint of balance they would have said: "A liberal, activist, Chicago man was sentenced to 2 years in prison Thursday for illegally accessing the Web site of a conservative political activist group..."
The Freeper druggie brigade (may their numbers always be small) is going to come in here and tell us this guy was imprisoned for drug use.
Plus he's probably a wimpy weeny and won't stack up well against some 300lb lifer.
What a jerk. I thought the Left was all about tolerance for different viewpoints?
When this rotten little puke is in prison, I hope he drops the soap a LOT.
Another punk l337 H4xx0r hears the dropping of a dime. He'll be back.
LOL Just Damn!
Not that I was an idiot when I was 19, or anything like that.
This judge Zagel is an idiot. He clearly does not understand what Hammond did. He should have been given a much harsher sentence.
He'll be up for parole in eight months, less if he served jail time for which he will receive credit. They should lock him up longer than that for claiming to be a hacker. Always work through proxies and always delete the server logs. Otherwise you'll end up with a wrist slap like this idiot got.
I wish they had given him 10 to 15 but I guess two years with Bubba will work. Maybe his liberal Commie pals will ship him care packages with tubes of KY in them.
I was in Vietnam when I was 19 and I do not think I was an idiot.
BTTT
Please ping me when the prison door is actually slammed shut on this little scumbag.
Thanks.
Hey, Jeremy. How do you know when you are getting AIDS?
You have a pounding sensation in your ass.