Posted on 04/30/2010 12:49:09 PM PDT by rhema
The 22-year-old man accused of hacking into the Yahoo! email account of Sarah Palin while she was the Republican candidate for vice president was found guilty of two of four counts: unlawful computer access and obstruction of justice, according to a report in the Knoxville News Sentinel. He was acquitted of the charge of wire fraud and a mistrial was declared on count one, identity theft.
David Kernell was a 20-year-old economics student at the University of Tennessee when he hacked his way past security questions to access Palin's personal email account in 2008. Kernell gained access by providing Palin's birth date and ZIP code to Yahoo's password retrieval system. At that time, she was the governor of Alaska and recently recruited as running mate in the presidential bid of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
The government will decide next week whether to retry the case, with sentencing to follow after that decision is made, according to @hsumerford reporting via Twitter from the scene. Kernell and his attorney had no comment for the press as they left the courtroom, he added.
A jury in Knoxville, Tenn. comprised of six men and six women, began hearing testimony last week in the case, including from Palin and her daughter Bristol, who both testified that the event disrupted their lives.
"It caused a huge disruption in the campaign," Palin told jurors during her 45 minutes of testimony last Friday.
The jury began its deliberations on Tuesday morning after receiving instructions from U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Phillips and continued for more than five hours before concluding for the day. The jurors continued discussion all day Wednesday and Thursday. By Thursday afternoon, the jurors were unanimous on their decision in three of the four charges, but were deadlocked on count one, the charge of identity theft.
The jurors' discussion seemed to be heating up on Thursday. In a note to the judge, the jurors said: "Some of us feel not all jurors are following the jury instruction."
When they could not come to a verdict on the charge of identity theft, the judge refused to accept a partial verdict and sent them back into the jury room to reach a decision on count one.
After another full day of deliberation on Friday, the jury acquitted Kernell of count two, wire fraud, but it remained deadlocked on count one, felony identity theft.
Kernell was charged with four felonies – felony identity theft, wire fraud, accessing Palin's email account without authorization and obstructing an FBI investigation. If convicted, he faced 50 years in prison.
Charges, possible sentence
Count one: identity theft
Maximum five years in prison
$250,000 fine
Three years supervised release
Count two: wire fraud
Maximum 20 years in prison
$250,000 fine
Five years supervised release
Count three: unlawful computer access
Maximum five years in prison
$250,000 fine
Three years supervised release
Lesser included misdemeanor offense on count three carries a maximum of one year in prison
Count four: obstruction of justice
Maximum 20 years in prison
$250,000 fine
Five years supervised release
Wade Davies, Kernell's attorney, argued that "what he did was closer to a prank than a crime." He added that Kernell didn't use the information he accessed or harass Palin's family. But prosecution lawyer Thomas Van Flein told the jury the hacking was "disruptive to [Palin's] ability to communicate with her staff."
Answering reporters' questions following her testimony last Friday, Palin said, "It's not right. It's not legal. It's not fair. It's not decent."
Davies argued that federal authorities trumped up charges because the high-profile Palin is the alleged victim. He urged jurors to penalize Kernell only for what he claimed was the more appropriate conviction: misdemeanor unauthorized computer access.
Kernell was present in court throughout the proceedings, but did not testify. He is the son of Democratic state Rep. Mike Kernell of Memphis, who has served in the state's House of Representatives for more than three decades.
Sentencing will follow.
Count three: unlawful computer access, Maximum five years in prison, $250,000 fine, Three years supervised release, Lesser included misdemeanor offense on count three carries a maximum of one year in prison; Count four: obstruction of justice, Maximum 20 years in prison, $250,000 fine, Five years supervised releaseHe should be fined the $500,000, and THEN hanged.
Yea! The Disgusting Punk’s Convictions will be overturned just like the Philly New black Panthers with Clubs on Voter Intimadation after being found Guilty.
“Felony obstruction means he won’t be voting in most states for the rest of his life...”
Except in the top 10 RAT states, where he’ll vote at least 20 times per election...:(
Freddy ‘Boom Boom’ Washington?
“How long till Obama pardons him?”
Maybe bammy will propose a beer summit with Kernell and Palin...
The corrections guys say that the inmates love the boys with the curls. It makes the top of his head look like a woman.
if someone did that to you would you feel 6 six months is appropriate and then to have everyone forget about it?
Only the Spirit within her could allow her to remain so gracious to her tormentors.
Exactly! I hate the RAT propagandists...they are traitors.
I still wonder about the father, how much he knew. Dems are scum. Like father, like son.
Notice the difference in this jury and the lib jury that convicted Scooter Libby. No solid evidence against Libby but convicted on 4 counts, all they cared about was getting a Bush guy; in this case, the jury gave every benefit of the doubt, obviously.
let’s hope the judge feels differently
He was convicted and now is out on bond still? no jail time for him.
Generally once convicted bond is revoked immediatly.
The statutory range is largely political grandstanding by Congress. What really matters are the guidelines. That’s the real sentence range.
Throw the book at this little twerp. He deserves everything he gets.
And let this be a lesson to politicians everywhere: don’t use easy to crack passwords or security questions that can be Googled from your bio.
many times defendants can remain out on bond after sentencing and until the appeal process is exhausted
Considering he was trying to derail her (and McCain’s campaign), this was more than just an ordinary hacking, just as the killing of a candidate for federal office is different than an ordinary murder. Interfering with one of the People’s choices for the Executive branch is quite serious. Let elections and other lawful means decide who is to serve us. Thugs like this punk do harm to our nation’s electoral system.
Lawyer will appeal the verdict on the grounds that the defendant is a Democrat, and is therefore immune to any findings of wrongdoing.
Oh, and I do hope they vote your daddy out of office next time around too.
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