Intellectual Property Law

Reiser Jury Deliberating; Readers Predicting 'Not Guilty'

By Ryan Singel, Kevin Poulsen, Sarah Lai Stirland, Kim Zetter, and David Kravets

OAKLAND, California -- Jurors weighing Linux programmer Hans Reiser's murder case were deliberating for the first full day here Wednesday. Panelists have just broken for lunch and are headed for a nearby Mexican restaurant.

The seven-man, five-woman jury received the case at 2:30 p.m. Pacific time Tuesday and left the Alameda County courthouse about two hours later.

The developer of the ReiserFS filesystem is accused of killing Nina Reiser, his 31-year-old wife, on Sept. 3, 2006. The couple was undergoing a bitter divorce and custody battle over their two young kids, a boy now 8 and girl now 6.

Nina Reiser, whom the defendant met in Russia while he was overseas hiring programmers for his Namesys software company, was last seen at her estranged husband's house in the Oakland hills. She dropped off the kids for the Labor Day weekend, and has never been seen.

Local and national media outlets are here awaiting a verdict in a murder-mystery trial that began Nov. 6. Threat Level will stream the verdict live. Stay tuned. There are no time constraints for the jury.

We also have a reader poll on the outcome, and a majority of you so far have picked "not guilty."

The 44-year-old defendant has pleaded not guilty and maintains his wife abandoned their kids and left the United States to her home country after he accused her of embezzling from Namesys.

Threat Level is providing gavel-to-gavel coverage.

See Also:

• Hans Reiser Jury Deliberating Fate of Linux Developer
• Hans Reiser Jury Leaves Without Verdict
• Prosecutor Declares Reiser Had 'Motive Coming Out of His Ears'
• Reiser Prosecutor Urging Jurors to Convict Linux Programmer, Says ...
• Defense Attorney Declares Hans Reiser Innocent, a 'Real Genuine ...
• Reiser a Victim of 'One of the Great Screw Jobs,' Lawyer Says ...
• Reiser Prosecutor to Jurors: 'You Know He Killed Her'
• Reiser Defense Blasts Prosecution; Geek Defense Re-Deployed

Full post as published by Threat Level on April 23, 2008 (boomark / email).