Legal News

Judge Officially Reverses Lori Drew?s Conviction

By Ashby Jones

Just a little housekeeping here. Last month, George Wu, a federal judge in Los Angeles, indicated he was inclined to reverse the conviction of Lori Drew, a Missouri mother, for Drew's role in a MySpace hoax directed at a 13-year-old neighbor girl who ended up committing suicide.

Well, on Friday, Wu made good on that promise, overturning Drew’s conviction, in a written opinion. Click here for the opinion, here for coverage from over the weekend from the Volokh Conspiracy (Hat tip: ABA Journal).

Drew was convicted of a misdemeanor under a federal law that criminalizes access to computers without authorization. Wu reasoned that applying misdemeanor provisions of the statute to Drew would mean anyone who has ever violated a website’s terms of service could be found guilty of a crime. Such a reading of the statute, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, would make it unconstitutionally vague.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on August 31, 2009 (boomark / email).