Aspergers

The line "was led into a life of crime" is a much more relevant defence with regard to Aspergers.

As I have been diagnosed with it I can speak with some authority - someone with Aspergers is perfectly able to determine whether what they are doing in this sort of sphere is right or wrong. It is with dealing with people that we have trouble. I am aware that I can be described as naive and am easily led - I do not always understand that someone may be using me to their own gain. I also have to be careful what I do for others.

Due to the social issues Aspergers causes people who have it usually struggle to make friends (yet we want them). Therefore if someone is willing to be a friend for what appears to be a minor cost that cost is usually likely to be met so the sufferer is able to keep that "friend" - even people without Asperger's will do things for their friends which they know are wrong.

The issue with Gary McKinnon is that he didn't do it to keep friends (well, the reporting doesn't mention doing it for others).

In summary: People with Aspergers are perfectly able to tell right from wrong (and are usually strongly moral), it's just that due to social difficulties we can screw up priorities when other people are involved as sometimes the only way we can feel that we have a "friend" is when they are using us - but we're unlikely to realise they are.

this seems different...

...to the McKinnon case - this seems more a case of wanton fraud rather than the McKinnon case which was more of a obsession of which the hacking was a byproduct.

I have far less sympathy for these guys than I do McKinnon (particularly given that he's been pretty let down by our country's crap extradition policy!).

What now for Gary?

I suspect that the point of this article was to make all increase our sympathy for Gary. To be honest I am not sure that that is how I feel. Sure I feel sorry that the UK government is prepared to have an extradition treaty in place with a government that still executes people and I feel sorry that Gary will probably have to serve his sentence in a US jail well away from his family and friends.

But is mental illness a defence? I mean surely if Gary is unable to tell right from wrong he should not get a shorter sentence he should get medical help and if no help is available then he should be kept away from society so that he cannot do it again.

But then again what kind of sane person really commits any crime. What is sane anyway? I believe that Gary's illness makes him less likely to consider the impact of his actions on other people. Surely no sane person would ever take the life of another if they considered the results of their actions. No sane person would get behind the wheel of a car when drunk if they thought about the people they could hurt. No sane person would actually steal from someone else not knowing the impact that may have on the victim.

So perhaps we can empty the prisons quite quickly but then start filling up the mental institutions at the same rate.

@ Thad

Show me a case in the 30 years were the US has executed a some one who was mentally ill .

Aspergers... the new cannabis

it was it what made me done it, guv

Interesting "scam"

If I understand correctly, they took money to deliver goods (admittedly under false pretenses) and then had those goods delivered by someone else for less. That sounds like a pretty standard business plan. Why did they need to hack a website to do that?

@kain preacher

off topic, but you could try http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=16777?

misc thoughts

@ northern monkey

Obsession with what? "It was not a mistake that there was a huge security stand-down on September 11 last year...I am SOLO. I will continue to disrupt at the highest levels" Hacking government computers to disrupt at the highest levesl, may be an obsession, but it's not one I'm willing to ignore. Stealing some money isn't as dangerous as trying to disrupt the U.S. military.

@ Baying Lynch Mob

See the quote above. I think you're wrong if you think he was just curious about UFO's. If that was the case, he woulnd't be leaving threatening notes about 9/11 on computers. I'm not sold yet that he's a 'terrorist,' but he's not some innoncent guy who didn't know messing with military computers was a bad thing. If all other details were the same, but this guy was in/from Pakistan imagine how things would be different.

They should add ten years to McKinnon's sentence

They should add ten years on to McKinnon's sentence for his extradition charades. No court that I have ever heard of accepts lying, denial or stupidity as an acceptable defense.