THE HARD DRIVE RECESS
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Copyright © 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 by Jay B. Gaskill
→ The Out-Lawyer’s Blog: http://www.jaygaskill.com/blog1
And
The Policy Think Site: http://www.jaygaskill.com
All contents, unless otherwise indicated are
Copyright © 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 by Jay B. Gaskill
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Please contact Jay B. Gaskill, attorney at law, via e mail at law@jaygaskill.com
Please contact Jay B. Gaskill, attorney at law, via e mail at law@jaygaskill.com
REISER CASE IN RECESS UNTIL 4-14 WHILE THE DA’S EXPERT EXAMINES THE HARD DRIVES
Following Reiser’s re-direct examination by Bill DuBois (see the summary in my previous post – or go to > http://jaygaskill.com/ReiserWindsDown.htm ), Paul Hora very briefly began his re-cross examination of the defendant…
There were a few questions about Hans’ prior use of the car and the screws and bolds that fastened the trim assembly and car seat that Hans had removed.
Then the entire case was suspended (as I predicted it would) because it turns out that there far too much stored on the recovered hard drives for a quick perusal. Two million files and 50 million lines of text were detected. A Sheriff’s Department forensic computer specialist has been and will be very busy.Judge Goodman advised the jury that the case will resume on Monday, April 14th and should go to final argument stage soon thereafter. Presumably, if the DA’s office has any rebuttal evidence, Paul Hora will be ready to present it immediately. The case should go to the jury the same week.
I will have two pieces ready to post then, both relating to the final arguments, and I plan to put them on “The Out-Lawyer’s Blog” as soon as all the key evidence is in.
Stay tuned…JBG
Comments
Excellent points and agood question. Thanks.
JBG
The cocky challenge set by Hans to the DA, "You need an expert", brings up this interesting question to speculate over: What happens when the local experts in the local Alameda County Sheriff's office discover that they are insufficiently 'expert' and cannot decrypt the e-mails on the drives in anything like a useful time-frame? Can they draw on the federal facilities of the NSA?
The seemingly large number of files on Hans' drives is not in any way unusual. My little laptop, which also runs Linux, has just over a million files on it, but that does not include either the so called 'portage tree' of some 150,000 files or my e-mail archive, because Google looks after that for me.
To the best of my knowledge I believe this is the first time strong encryption has featured in a crime case of this type. What happens, both technically and constitutionally, will be fascinating.
Posted by: Christopher | April 9, 2008 09:56 AM