I bet you wouldn't all be defending this guy if you'd come home and found him in your houses looking for evidence of UFO's in your papers!
He has Asbergers - that doesn't mean he doesn't know right from wrong.
He's admitted a serious criminal offense whether or not he did permanant harm is a matter of mitigation not a defense.
The argument he did the pentagon a favour by exposing their weak security is farcical - try that one defending a shoplifter.
I don't care whether it's in the UK or the US - he should be prosecuted - people need to see that we take computer crime seriously otherwise it'll set a legal precident for every little hacker who gets into your bank account or medical records
I mean if they just read your details they won't have done any harm will they?
I think a big problem with this case is the lack of real knowledge of Aspergers syndrome, if he were tried in the US his disability would be ignored, as stated by his mother that the psychologists do not have experience or knowledge of Aspergers Syndrome.
Seeing someone who "looks okay" on the news clips can give rise to a lot of innacurate assumptions.
He should be tried in this country, with his Aspergers Syndrome taken into account, its important to remember that people with Aspergers develop powerful obsessions with certain things. Obsessions so powerful that the sufferer is almost powerless to control it.
I know people with Aspergers - one quite bad who works with me in the computer industry.
He is certainly able to know right from wrong
McKinnon's lawyers are playing on this but the fact of the matter is that if this was a terrorist suspect caught with a house full of bomb making kit nobody would be giving 2 seconds to the Aspergers
If you think the Aspergers excludes him from criminal responsibility you're telling us that should he knife someone in the street he shouldn't be tried for it.
I agree that aspergers people do know right from wrong, I think its right that as part of his trial in the UK experts in Autism Spectrum Disorders can assist in deciding if his condition could contribute to his crime.
\\\\f he were tried in the US his disability would be ignored, as stated by his mother that the psychologists do not have experience or knowledge of Aspergers Syndrome.\\\
I think that the Americans do know a bit about the disorder as it was described by an American initially.....about one year before Dr Asperger described it.
// I bet you wouldn't all be defending this guy if you'd come home and found him in your houses looking for evidence of UFO's in your papers! //
I once came home and found a man rifling through my fridge for evidence of green stalky vegetables. He managed to avoid prison because he had asparagus syndrome. You couldn't make it up.
The colonials have gone all Homeland ott over this and our own politicians have an election to fight soon.
Neither of these facts, of course, has any bearing on the case and are purely co-incidental.
The man has a medical condition which, while not excusing what he did, does not qualify him for an orange boiler suit in the land of the free(ish).