On 3/22/2011 11:50 PM, Jerome Baum wrote: > A guy with encryption software hopefully doesn't have a higher > chance of molesting a child.
Except that *you don't know what that was entered to prove*. It's quite possible it was not entered to prove he molested a child. If I was a prosecutor, I'd want to argue that he was technically proficient, and enter the existence of PGP to support that claim. If the jury then decides, "well, he had PGP on his hard drive, therefore he's probably guilty," then that's the jury being idiots. That doesn't mean the U.S. system is unjust: every nation with a jury system has to deal with juries being idiots. The fact he used PGP was entered into a trial about the abuse of a child: but that doesn't mean that fact was entered into evidence to prove he abused the child -- it could have (and quite likely was) entered for something else. Unless you're looking at the court record, you don't know. > How does the fact that the judge believed his decision was > right support your argument that the court (i.e. judge) made the > correct decision? Because it means four judges, who were quite likely appointed by different governors and have different political beliefs, came to the same opinion about the law. When four judges who don't like each other and squabble constantly unanimously say, "the law says this," well, I tend to give that a lot of credit. > As for the appeals court, I have heard (obviously no first-hand > experience) that they are very conservative when it comes to > turning over a court's decision I can't talk about the Minnesota state courts: I haven't studied their system. At the federal level, appellate judges give the trial judge's decisions a great deal of deference when it comes to findings of fact -- the rule of thumb is a factual finding must be "as offensive to the senses as a three-day-old mackerel" for a factual finding to be overturned -- but zero deference for findings of law. Literally, zero deference. > So, how does technical sophistication have to do with whether or not > the guy molested the child? You're asking me to demonstrate psychic powers by telling you about a transcript I haven't read. However, as a guess, Minnesota may very well have an enhanced penalty for the use of counterforensic software and/or encryption in the commission of a crime. That's an example of something that wouldn't have any effect on whether the accused committed the abuse, but would be relevant to how harshly he was sentenced -- and it could be entered into evidence on those grounds. That's just a guess. There are many, many, *many* other ways it could've happened. _______________________________________________ Gnupg-users mailing list Gnupg-users@gnupg.org http://lists.gnupg.org/mailman/listinfo/gnupg-users
