Wednesday, November 26, 2008
News Rough Justice
Posted by Dan Savage on Wed, Nov 26, 2008 at 2:52 PM
NYT:
A federal jury here convicted a Missouri woman of three misdemeanor charges of computer fraud for her involvement in creating a phony account on MySpace to trick a teenager, who later committed suicide.The defendant, Lori Drew, 49, faces up to three years in prison and $300,000 in fines, according to federal sentencing guidelines. The jury rejected felony charges against Ms. Drew, and was deadlocked on a conspiracy count. Judge George Wu declared a mistrial on that charge.
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3
Not enough. There are laws in place establishing statutory rape for sexual activity between an adult and a minor; similar laws protect minors in other coercive situations. Just as you are responsible for the crime if you chase someone off a cliff by driving your car at them, so too is she more directly responsible than the verdict indicates. Additionally, simulating an intimate relationship with a minor should still fall under the categorization of statutory. If a man or a lesbian were in Drew's position, I wonder how the sentence would have been different...
This should have been addressed in a more savvy way that doesn't treat technology as something completely separate from human behavior.
This should have been addressed in a more savvy way that doesn't treat technology as something completely separate from human behavior.
4
The part that kills me is that part of her defense was that the victim called her daughter a lesbian.
...Because insinuating someone is gay is such a grievous sin as to warrant ruining someone's life and driving them to suicide.
...Because insinuating someone is gay is such a grievous sin as to warrant ruining someone's life and driving them to suicide.
5
There was totally a law & order inspired by this case on a few nights ago.
Except in the end it turns out that the girl hadn't killed herself (even though the crazy trashy mom told her to) -- she'd been killed by her crazy christian boyfriend.
law and order is stupid.
Except in the end it turns out that the girl hadn't killed herself (even though the crazy trashy mom told her to) -- she'd been killed by her crazy christian boyfriend.
law and order is stupid.
6
@3 you raise a very interesting point. If an adult pretends to be other than himself and lures a minor for sexual purposes via the internet the law is very clear as to guilt, whether actual contact is made or not. This was an adult disguising herself to interfere with a minor, I would really like to have heard the discussion on this point.
12
@ 3, 6 - Drew was charged with "intentionally accessing a computer for the purpose of committing a criminal or tortious act," but found not guilty.
13
Travesty of justice. Sorry folks, but violating MySpace's terms of services (the "crime" she was charged with) shouldn't land you in jail. This case sets a very very very bad precedent.
14
That's the problem - the crime that really was done here was harassing a minor into committing suicide, under pretenses of a romantic/intimate relationship. Framing it through the filter of accessing a computer/website was a bad way to do it - as 13 put it, it's a bad precedent, and while MySpace was used as a tool, the tool should not matter. Murder committed with an axe or a knife means you still killed the person, and it doesn't matter whether you owned the axe or stole it.
15
I read about this case. This moron actually put up a blog called Megan Asked For It, trying to justify her actions. She should get the chair. My hat is off to the victim's mother. I would have killed the woman.
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