Are Plea Agreements Always Accurate

Eric Cordian emc at artifact.psychedelic.net
Thu Sep 27 13:04:05 PDT 2001


Declan writes:

> Feel free to read the plea agreement (politechbot.com) yourself and
> draw your own conclusions.

I did.  

The plea agreement is essentially verbatim what the prosecution was saying
in its press releases when Mr. West was disputing the prosecution's
account.

I fail to see why Mr. West being coerced into signing this government
editorial renders moot his extremely cogent prior arguments as to why it
was bullshit.

As an example...

[WEST penetrated a security hole in the website of the Poteau Daily News
 and Sun, employed a user ID and password, and downloaded computer files
 of value."]

The word "and" does not imply that any of these things was enabled by any
of the others.  Particularly it does not imply that Mr. West used the user
ID and password to gain access to and to download files not otherwise
available.
 
It merely states that he downloaded some files, AND noticed a security
hole, AND tried a userid and password he had found.
 
Indeed, merely browsing the site would have "downloaded" files according
to the letter of the law.

Such deceptive weasel-wording and juxtiposition of facts having no cause
and effect relationship is typical of plea agreements.

I wish it wasn't also typical of most news reporting.

-- 
Eric Michael Cordian 0+
O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division
"Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"





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