Spoilation, escrows, courts, pigs.

[Declan McCullagh]

On Tue, Jul 31, 2001 at 07:15:29PM -0700, Tim May wrote:
> You talk a lot about "courts not being amused" but I can find no 
> evidence that such laws exist. Nor can I find any case where a Mafia 
> don was prosecuted for "spoliating" a future prosecution by 
> whispering.
> 
> Do you have such examples? And an appeals court assessment of the examples?

BU may be speaking of the attitude of a district judge when he learns
what you've done. It may not be an offense in itself, but it skirts
refusing a court order (in one hypothetical), and is really going to
just piss the judge off. So many trials include both sides trying to
convince the judge that they're taking reasonable positions, and
occasionally getting blindsided by a pissed off judge when he thinks
they're not. It's petty tyranny, true (look at my wired.com report on
the Scarfo case and the judge getting pissed at press coverage of it)
but it's what happens.

-Declan