Posted on 06/20/2013 5:11:06 PM PDT by BarnacleCenturion
The National Security Agency has spent years demanding that companies turn over their data. Now, the spy agency finds the shoe is on the other foot. A defendant in a Florida murder trial says telephone records collected by the NSA as part of its surveillance programs hold evidence that would help prove his innocence, and his lawyer has demanded that prosecutors produce those records. On Wednesday, the federal government filed a motion saying it would refuse, citing national security. But experts say the novel legal argument could encourage other lawyers to fight for access to the newly disclosed NSA surveillance database.
...
The laws of evidence require that prosecutors turn over to the defense any records they have that might help prove a suspect's innocence.
"This opens up a Pandora's box," said Mark Rasch, former head of the Department of Justice Computer Crimes Unit, and now an independent consultant. “You will have situations where the phone companies no longer have the data, but the government does, and lawyers will try to get that data.”
(Excerpt) Read more at redtape.nbcnews.com ...
The rule of law is in a free fall and has been for a long time.
Tar, feathers and many rails for the zero administration.
What’s good for the goose...
That didn't take long!
The rule of law is in a free fall and has been for a long time.
but the Rule of Mob is ascendant!
The list, Ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
Thanks, Obama. You've done wonders to jurisprudence, dumbass.
High-powered defense attorney: "You have evidence that will help my client."Government: "Uh, it's classified."
High-powered defense attorney: "Bull-hockey! Hand it over!"
Ok folks here it comes, can’t lie about getting dome strange. They got you cold.
Especially if the meta data originated from the accused hardware!
I agree —the gummint bugged their trusting SUBJECTS, and now the gummint will be subjected to all this these demands and nagging.
I think it’s fair, and I hope it completely exhausts them.
They have many thousands of employees, and the data is our PROPERTY, since we paid for it.
It would not harm national security to release a complete record of who this alleged murderer called and when. If the government is going to collect the data, he is entitled to use the data in his defense.
Amendment VI: In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall . . . have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor . . .
Two cheers for the lawyers. If they can’t fix it, at least muck it up completely.
Hey, clients can use NSA data to get proof that their lawyers gave inadequate counsel, cheated on their wives, or were in a conspiracy to get them the chair.
Let the games begin.
Won’t hold up in a court of law. The opposing attorney will rightly claim that the evidence was illegally obtained by the government.
Would these inquiries be good? If it slows down implementation of the system, good. If lawyers being denied access to data makes them turn against it, good. If innocent people get out due to data collection, good.
But the defense would be, “the data does not exist”.
Now that should be the definition of "irony".
welcome news.
if it helps the search for justice.
especially in divorce matters.
The prosecution can’t use it in their case. Illegally obtained.
If the government claims “national security”, they will have to show why the defendant’s phone records compromise national security concerns.
If the phone records prove his guilt, he walks because the evidence was illegally obtained.
The NSA is capturing phone calls, business records, internet searches, sites frequented,... heaven only knows what more.
Let’s just look at the phone call end of this. Folks can extrapolate out the rest on their own.
We have 316 million citizens
If those citizens make 2 calls a day on average, that works out to 227.5 billion calls per year. If the number of calls averages 6 calls per day, the number of calls per year increases to 682.6 billion calls per year.
Some folks may not make that many calls themselves, but others do and the average is probably more than we might think.
Out of even the low end 227.5 billion calls, the best the NSA can come up with is fifty saves, with the most rosy outcome the NSA could come up with.
227.5 billion calls, 50 saves.
That’s 0.000000021976090% efficiency.
Only a government troll could find that level of payoff, to be worth capturing 227.5 billion calls. Only a Third Reich fan-boy, could find collecting this much data on his fellow citizens to be the right thing to do.
I’d like to know how many of those ‘VAST’ 50 stopped terrorist attacks, couldn’t have been stopped with warrants and a traditional follow-through?
Any? 50, 40, 30, 20, 10,... even one?
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