Posted on 11/20/2017 2:55:01 PM PST by Swordmaker
Apple has officially been served with a warrant in the case of the Texas shooting perpetrator Devin Patrick Kelley and his iPhone. The case hearkens back to the San Bernardino tragedy of 2015, and the ensuing legal dispute with repercussions that are still being felt today.
As per court records obtained by the San Antonio Express-News, Texas Ranger Kevin Wright has produced search warrants for photos, messages, documents, and other data that might be stored on Kelley’s iPhone and his iCloud account. Access to this information, authorities say, could help shed light on the worst mass shooting in the state’s history.
On Friday, November 10, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein voiced frustration about cell phone encryption. Using the recent Texas church shooter Devin Patrick Kelley as an example, Rosenstein said, “No reasonable person questions our right to access the phone.” The comments were the latest against Apple from the Department of Justice.
At a business breakfast, Rosenstein told the audience that he believed Apple should provide law enforcement agencies backdoor access to break encryption. He went on to say that there’s no “legitimate privacy interest in that [Kelley’s] phone,” and that if Kelley were alive it would be legal for police and prosecutors to search the phone.
Rosenstein’s comments came just days after Apple released a public statement saying that no law enforcement agencies had contacted the company for assistance after the Texas shooting that left 25 dead, plus an unborn child.
During a press conference on Tuesday, November 7, FBI special agent Christopher Combs expressed dismay over the agency’s inability to unlock Kelley’s phone after a shooting in Sutherland Springs.
“It highlights an issue that you’ve all heard about before, with the advance of the technology and the phones and the encryptions [sic], law enforcement, whether that’s at the state, local or federal level, is increasingly not able to get into these phones,” Cooper said, without referring directly to Apple.
On Wednesday, November 8, Apple responded to the FBI’s criticism stating that it actually reached out to assist the FBI shortly after Tuesday’s press conference. In a statement provided to BuzzFeed, Apple said neither local, state, nor federal officials reached out to the company before the press conference. It also offered to expedite any requests from officials.
Apple's statement on the phone used by the Texas church gunman is quite something pic.twitter.com/RVwk13tM6U
— John Paczkowski (@JohnPaczkowski) November 8, 2017
The timing of both the FBI’s statement, as well as Apple’s response, is crucial to the investigation. Had the FBI had contacted the iPhone maker within the first 48 hours of the shooting, they could have possibly used the phone’s Touch ID technology to unlock the phone. After 48 hours, however, Touch ID can no longer be used to unlock the phone.
After reaching out to the FBI on Tuesday to see if it needed help unlocking Kelley’s phone, an official with the agency responded, stating the FBI was not asking for any assistance. According to a story in The Washington Post, investigators decided instead to send the phone to its Quantico, Virginia, headquarters to attempt to find a different way to access data, a decision that could take weeks.
While 80 percent of iPhone users rely on the Touch ID feature to unlock their phones, it’s unknown if Kelley used the feature. Even without Touch ID, other options exist for accessing the shooter’s data. Apple provides encrypted iCloud storage data and decryption keys to law enforcement officials with a court order.
The Texas shooting is just the latest in a series of battles between Apple and law enforcement agencies. In 2016, the FBI took Apple to court in an attempt to force the company to unlock San Bernardino, California shooter Syed Farook’s iPhone. After a protracted legal battle, the FBI eventually dropped the case after it was able to unlock the phone with third-party software.
Update: Apple has been served a search warrant with regard to the mass shooter’s iPhone.
I just went back over this thread with a fine-tooth comb and found ZERO people writing what you claim they wrote, or even hinting at such a thing. That makes you a liar. If I am wrong, please quote them verbatim.
The shooter still had fingerprints didn’t he ? How about “future” protocol established to handcuff then use his fingerprints to open his phone before he reaches room temperature ?
You sure thats not 1.7 Novemdecillion possible combinations ? ....btw really like the new tag line. Thats t-shirt worthy.
Body temperature has nothing to do with whether the TouchID works or not. It has to do with other factors including blood flow and body electrical capacitance when changes drastically at death. But the most important is the fluids still being in the fatty pads under the finger tips which are maintained by blood pressure. They'd have to catch it quite quickly for it still to work. These days, disturbing the body in situ at the death scene is not permitted until CSI is finished with it. Also, I've heard no evidence they'd found his iPhone yet. He may have left it at home.
Besides, it still takes a court order to "search" his iPhone.
if we wait a week or so, it will be a Decembedecillion. . .
Thanks for the tag line compliment. You're the first to say anything. I thought of it several months ago with all the identity idiocy. Seemed like a logical extension of the absurdities going on.
I hope there’s a decent explanation for all this kerfluffle.
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Why blame Texas? Apple’s offer was to the FBI, who didn’t respond.
> Why blame Texas? Apple’s offer was to the FBI, who didn’t respond.
Good point. In commenting on the law enforcement folks in general, I was conflating the two.
The ineptitude of law enforcement is brain-numbing. Apple made it clear early-on that they were not contacted in any way about accessing said data. Indeed, with the proper warrant, Apple will provide any data they have access to.
In fact - had law enforcement had any sense at all - they could have gotten in to the shooter’s phone (assuming he set up fingerprint security).
Agree in most cases BUT I think the events warrant the collection of evidence immediately without a search warrant due his death and the degree of his crime.... such collection may be inadmissible later but speed is of the essence in such cases “per my experience” with acts of terror. Courts can determine after the fact legality .......
That tag lines a keeper for sure.....
If Fedgov forces a backdoor are the willing to indemnify all users that get hacked through said backdoor?
Apple's offer was to all police agencies involved in the investigation, not just the FBI. This was a day after the shooting when it was announced there was an unnamed phone found associated with Kelley. Apple said that if it was an iPhone they would be glad to help and they were turned down with the statement that law enforcement "experts" would handle it.
The problem with that scenario is the legal doctrine of "the fruit of the poisoned tree." If this is the root of the concatenation of evidence that leads to other conspirators who were definitely were involved in the crime, and the investigators ONLY found them because they were in that iPhone which was opened without a proper search warrant, then ALL subsequent evidence WILL BE THROWN OUT as fruit of that original poisonous tree. . . too bad, so sad, but case law requires it. The perps walk.
We may know beyond a shadow of a doubt they did it, and find other evidence later because we WILL NOW LOOK FOR IT, but had we not known to look for it from the evidence found in that iPhone we would NEVER have known about them. . . and even that independent evidence would still be "fruit of that poisoned tree." They still walk.
That is why it HAS to be done with the right legal boxes checked. Otherwise even a first year in practice defense attorney would find it a cake walk to get his client a directed verdict of "Not Guilty," if it has gone to trial, or a dismissal with prejudice if the case has yet to go to trial, preventing the case from ever being brought by the state.
Feel free to borrow it and spread it around. Let's see if we can make it go viral.
Of course not. When have you ever heard of the government indemnifying anyone injured due to the unintended consequences of bad regulations? They just turn their eyes and walk away from the carnage they cause. Look at forest fires. . .
Agree with what your saying albeit...
Talking bout a dead guys phone here ..... evidence cant be used against him as he is DRT.
.... just gathering intel on his lone wolf or terror cell status . He won’t be an open casket in court.
It's not the dead guy they have to worry about. It's the living co-conspirators that may be revealed by evidence on the iPhone that can only be discovered by what's on that iPhone.
EXACTLY ! .......:o)
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