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On Monday, a US federal appeals court sided against a former Philadelphia police officer who has been in jail 17 months because he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against compelled self-incrimination. He had refused to comply with a court order commanding him to unlock two hard drives the authorities say contain child porn.
The 3-0 decision (PDF) by the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals means that the suspect, Francis Rawls, likely will remain jailed indefinitely or until the order (PDF) finding him in contempt of court is lifted or overturned. However, he still can comply with the order and unlock two FileVault encrypted drives connected to his Apple Mac Pro. Using a warrant, authorities seized those drives from his residence in 2015. While Rawls could get out from under the contempt order by unlocking those drives, doing so might expose him to other legal troubles.
In deciding against Rawls, the court of appeals found that the constitutional rights against being compelled to testify against oneself were not being breached. That's because the appeals court, like the police, agreed that the presence of child porn on his drives was a "foregone conclusion." The Fifth Amendment, at its most basic level, protects suspects from being forced to disclose incriminating evidence. In this instance, however, the authorities said they already know there's child porn on the drives, so Rawls' constitutional rights aren't compromised.
[...] The suspect's attorney, Federal Public Defender Keith Donoghue, was disappointed by the ruling.
"The fact remains that the government has not brought charges," Donoghue said in a telephone interview. "Our client has now been in custody for almost 18 months based on his assertion of his Fifth Amendment right against compelled self-incrimination."
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Aiwendil on Wednesday March 22 2017, @08:56AM (2 children)
ok, honestly now - how many of you remember a non-trivial password if you don't use it for over a year? Especially the longer and more random variety.
Or will they at some point just progress (if they havn't already) jail him for having a not-above-average memory?
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 22 2017, @09:39AM
Maybe his password simply is "I won't tell you my password" and he actually told them his password and they just didn't recognize it. ;-)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 22 2017, @10:35PM
That is the real problem here. The longer he is locked up, the more likely he is to actually forget what the password is. I know I have to think for awhile to come up with my passwords after a week or so and I cannot remember at all my workstation password, despite using it multiple times a day, unless I am actually sitting in front of the darn thing typing it in.