New twist in Palin hacker case

Defense lawyer Wade Davies has asked a federal judge to dismiss the four federal charges pinned on David Kernell , the Tennessee college student who allegedly hacked into Gov. Sarah Palin's Yahoo e-mail account, Wired reported. Davis argues that in Tennessee, an act must expose something inherently private and place the victim in a false light for it to be considered an invasion of privacy. This wasn't the case, he says, because "an Alaska court has issued an order requiring Ms. Palin to preserve the correspondence in her private e-mail accounts on the grounds that the e-mails are public records."

A surprise legal maneuver by the defense in the Sarah Palin hacking case could undermine key charges carrying the stiffest potential penalties.

A lawyer for the Tennessee college student charged with hacking into the Alaska governor’s Yahoo e-mail account last year says his client couldn’t have violated Palin’s privacy because a judge had already declared her e-mails a matter of public record.

“He’s not suggesting that e-mail can’t be private,” says Mark Rasch, a former Justice Department cybercrime prosecutor. “He’s saying this particular e-mail was not private or personal because of who she is and because it wasn’t intimate communication.”

More here.