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from the dismissed-dismissed-dismissed-echo-echo-echo dept.
The case against James Bates, an Arkansas man and Amazon Echo owner charged with first-degree murder, has been dropped by prosecutors:
Arkansas prosecutors have dropped their case against James Bates, whom they had charged with first-degree murder partly with the help of evidence collected by an Amazon Echo smart speaker. On Wednesday, a circuit court judge granted their request to have the charges of murder and tampering with evidence dismissed.
The prosecutors declared nolle prosequi, stating that the evidence could support more than one reasonable explanation.
The move marks a curious end to a still more curious case, which had revolved around the role played by a personal assistant device that's supposed to begin recording as soon as someone says its wake word — "Alexa," in this case — in its presence.
Previously: Police Seek Amazon Echo Data in Murder Case
Amazon Continues to Resist Requests for "Alexa" Audio Evidence in Arkansas Murder Case
Can Amazon Echo Help Solve a Murder? Police Will Soon Find Out.
Related: Law Enforcement Has Been Using OnStar, SiriusXM, to Eavesdrop, Track Car Locations
(Score: 4, Insightful) by takyon on Saturday December 02 2017, @02:01PM
I'm not getting that vibe at all. Their case was apparently non-existent before they started demanding data from Amazon, which became a bit of a protracted process. Whatever data they got from the Alexa and smart water meter wasn't enough to build a good case against him. "OMG, he used a lot of water in the middle of the night! It's murder!!!"
If you had a home surveillance system or something, and it managed to provide you with an alibi against a murder charge, you would probably be relieved. That doesn't mean that people need to rig up their homes with 24/7 recording devices and microphones.
Rather than provide an airtight alibi for this man, it seems that the Alexa and water meter data "could support more than one reasonable explanation", or was otherwise entirely inconclusive. Remove Alexa from the equation and they still would have had to drop the case.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]