[5765] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
LA wiretaps
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (David Wagner)
Sat Sep 25 18:43:01 1999
From: David Wagner <daw@cs.berkeley.edu>
Message-Id: <199909242355.QAA17309@blowfish.isaac.cs.berkeley.edu>
To: cryptography@c2.net
Date: Fri, 24 Sep 1999 23:55:42 +0000 ()
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Today's front-page article in the LA Times may be of special interest
to folks following the proposed Cyberspace Electronic Security Act.
Lawyers Seek to Reopen Cases Over Wiretapping
http://www.latimes.com/HOME/NEWS/STATE/UPDATES/lat_wiretap990924.htm
Hundreds of criminal convictions dating back a decade should be
reviewed and possibly retried because defendants were never
told that the evidence against them came from illegal wiretaps, a
group of criminal defense attorneys said this week in a strongly worded
court affidavit.
The Los Angeles County public defender and about 50 other lawyers
accused the district attorney's office of covering up illegal wiretapping
operations in violation of the law and a Los Angeles Superior Court
order.
[...]
This comes at a particularly interesting time: The Justice Dept.
has recently proposed a bill that lets prosecutors introduce computer
evidence (obtained, e.g., from wiretaps) without allowing defense
attorneys a chance to review its accuracy or to cross-examine the
prosecution's experts.
In my view, the LA wiretaps are yet another example of why we need
_more_ scrutiny in the courtroom, not less.
-- David Wagner, daw@cs.berkeley.edu
