Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by tptacek 2155 days ago
It drives me a little nuts when people say stuff like this (they said it about Reiser, too) --- because you can say the same thing about tens of thousands of young offenders imprisoned for crimes we don't have a rooting interest in.

We need to reduce sentences across the board, for both violent and nonviolent crimes, because our sentencing ranges are bonkers. But it's immoral to single out crimes committed by people we identify with personally as particularly worthy of leniency.

At any rate, presuming the evidence holds up, it's unlikely that this person is going to find any leniency at all. High profile is tough but survivable; monetized is tougher still. High profile and monetized? My guess is they're going to make an example out of him.

2 comments

> But it's immoral to single out crimes committed by people we identify with personally as particularly worthy of leniency.

You don't just disagree, but actually believe people asking for leniency are outright behaving immorally. You can disagree without calling someone immoral.

Sending a 17 year old to prison for a non violent crime for 2-4x as long as a murderer would get in my country seems criminal in itself (but I don't think you are immoral for advocating for it).

Reiser was a murderer. An equivalent to this crime would be a 17 Yr old who managed to pick the lock of Fort Knox with a toothpick and walk out with a 1kg gold bar.

> At any rate, presuming the evidence holds up, it's unlikely that this person is going to find any leniency at all. High profile is tough but survivable; monetized is tougher still. High profile and monetized? My guess is they're going to make an example out of him.

I wouldn’t be so sure. Look at Paras Jha, Zachary Buchta and Mir Islam.

All engaged in similar high profile crimes, all monetized. I think only Mir spent a little bit of time in prison.

I have a hard time thinking of any young, high profile offenders that were handed severe punishments for cybercrimes by federal courts in the past decade.