Lori Drew MySpace Conviction Thrown Out
On August 28, Judge George Wu of the United States District Court for the Central District of California overturned the conviction of Lori Drew and dismissed the case against Lori Drew relating to the suicide of Megan Meier. The Judge found that for purposes of this criminal prosecution the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the federal law upon which the Jury returned a guilty verdict, was unconstitutionally void for vagueness. I have just finished reading and thinking about this 32 page opinion (well written and reasoned, by the way), and based upon the many details of the MySpace User Agreement it seems right. You’d have to be a master marksman to draft a User Agreement that would meet constitutional muster in the face of criminal indictment.
The Judge found that Congress had not established adequately and clearly the minimal guidelines to govern law enforcement.
The decision does not deal with the civil actions that can arise from a breach of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
One thing seems very clear. It is time for Congress to act. A revised Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, or another law altogether, must be crafted that prevents this type of abuse. Our children deserve as much.
