Connecticut Still Wants To Try Julie Amero
from the sickening dept
You may recall the case of Julie Amero, a substitute teacher in Connecticut who was found guilty of charges that she had showed pornography to children in her classroom, and who faced 40 years in jail. The problem was that the police and the prosecutors seemed unable to understand what had actually happened. The computer in the classroom had been infected by malware, which tossed up porn pop-up ads. It wasn't that she was surfing porn, but that the computer had malware. As news of this wrongful conviction got out, more and more security experts tried to explain to everyone involved why Amero was not the guilty party. Eventually, the judge agreed, and struck down the guilty verdict.However, the state still has not dropped the case.
In fact, as reader Phil K lets us know, the state has no intention of dropping the case, and appears to want a new trial. No one involved in the case will explain why they won't drop it. In fact, they won't even apologize for what was clearly a wrongful prosecution in the first place. The prosecutors, the police and the school Amero worked for haven't said a word. The fact that they're planning to go through another trial over this matter suggests they still don't even realize what they did.
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Filed Under: connecticut, julie amero, malware
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Not surprising
Even if it makes them look like a bunch of wankers.
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Just like that Massachusetts state worker
The law sucks when they have no idea how computer crime works, huh.
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Double Jeopardy?
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Re: Double Jeopardy?
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Re: Double Jeopardy?
Thats what sucks about our legal system. They can charge her for one thing and when the wrongful conviction is overturned they can charge her with something else related to the first charge, just so they can try to put her in jail and save face.
But as long as one child is protected, this is all worth it....right?
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Re: Re: Double Jeopardy?
When a case is dismissed, it can be with or without prejudice. Assuming this case was dismissed without prejudice, she can be tried again.
As far as charging her with something else, I don't think that's correct. You can't be tried twice for the same /crime/ regardless of the charge, where "crime" means "criminal act". For example, you can't be found innocent of rape and then retried on sexual assault for the same crime - that would be double jeopardy regardless of the charge.
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Re: Re: Re: Double Jeopardy?
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Re: Double Jeopardy?
> This is a criminal charge that has already been
> overturned.
According to the article, "In June of 2007, Judge Strackbein threw out the initial conviction and ordered a new trial."
That means he overturned the verdict on evidentiary grounds with leave for the state to retry the defendant without the botched evidence. Such things happen all the time and they are not violations of double jeopardy.
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More here...
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Re: More here...
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wtf?
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Next year's headlines:
Scapegoats are apparently more important than education in certain districts, it seems.
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Duke lacrosse players
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One of the prosecutors' computers gets locked down/infected due to malware.
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Re:
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I'd like to see...
I can dream, can't I?
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Where are the other teachers?
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Re: Where are the other teachers?
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I don't understand how she could be charged when she wasn't the only one who had access to the computer anyway. I don't think people should be charged for something like this when it is unintentional. It doesn't sound like she was TRYING to expose them. Crazy and scary.
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OMG!
This is a well educated, middle class woman with no prior arrests - can anyone understand what happens to the uneducated poor in the justice system.
Also compare the unethical prosecution of her to the Duke College students
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Re: OMG!
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Re: Re: Re: Double Jeopardy?
As for being seen to do something to "protect the children", the state prosecutors ought to go after the malware producer and whichever sleazy "affiliate" used surreptitious installs to get it onto a school's computers.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Double Jeopardy?
> the children", the state prosecutors ought to
> go after the malware producer
That person probably isn't even in the USA, let alone the state of Connecticut. Not much a local DA can do against someone like that.
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Prosecutors
Prosecutors are infallible. They never make mistakes.
So many of them remind me of Mark Twain's musing, "Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it."
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Wikipedia Article
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erate
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actual guilt is beside the point
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Fess up
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We must hang her.
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Wikipedia; malware producer
Re: the malware producer is probably not even in the US: the prosecutors should find out exactly where the malware producer is, and whatever affiliate did the drive-by install, and generally do what's called in the law-enforcement field "conducting an investigation". For that, they may want police or even Interpol assistance. The tools, procedures, and agencies exist to investigate crimes, including crimes that might cross borders. They just need to pick them up and use them.
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hmm
This reminds me of conservative judges denying motions to allow dna testing of crime scene evidence by people already convicted of a crime claiming innocence.
This woman's innocence is clearly defined, and the judge himself overturned the conviction. For them to act with such disregard for justice, the law, and the facts of the case is absolutely mindblowing.
These prosecutors should be disbarred, if not criminally prosecuted. No one with minds like theirs has any place having the public's trust bestowed upon them to ensure that justice is served.
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Other teachers?
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message
I think that the Julie amero was innocent as the computer in classroom was affected by malware so it was showing the porn ads on the net. But I feel that the computers in the classrooms should not have these kinds of things and I feel very bad for Julie, as she has got the verdict of spending 40 years in jail
===========================================================
Garry
http://www.treatmentcent ers.org/connecticut
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At least that's in a logical world. Bah. But the really scary thing is this tendency of communities to jump on any whiff of "child" + porn" and ruin someone's life, with NO EVIDENCE AT ALL.
A *murderer* gets a more fair trial than this; how did we get to the point where popup windows (which we have ALL had happen to us with seemingly no logic) can ruin the rest of someone's life and NOBODY notices what a farce of justice it is?! Good lord, even if she had INTENTIONALLY shown the porn, it's not worth a 40-year sentence--for something to allegedly happen that is both unlikely and unproven to result in taking away the rest of her life...I'm astonished.
And, who is surprised that nobody wants to be a substitute in that district after this? I'm surprised anyone goes into teaching at all, in this current culture that treats all schoolkids as completely innocent creatures who would NEVER do anything wrong and all adults as predators whose every thought is consumed in molesting them.
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if you only knew
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Re: if you only knew
1. I have.
2. Children lie every single day.
3. Perhaps they would have found that trail if the defense had been allowed to put their expert witness on the stand.
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Re: Re: if you only knew
So do defendants.
"3. Perhaps they would have found that trail if the defense had been allowed to put thier expert witness on the stand"
All kinds of outside sources analyzed the computer... if that trail existed they would have been screaming it at the top of thier lungs, and no plea bargains.
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Still accepting paypal huh?
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If you knew
Lisa
connecticut drug rehab
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Re: If you knew
You seem to forget she pleaded guilty......
Just a reminder.
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