Lori Drew Verdict Thrown Out in MySpace Case

Lori Drew as she leaves the federal courthouse in Los Angeles yesterday (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

A Los Angeles federal judge tentatively threw out a jury's verdicts against a Missouri mother who used MySpace in a hoax directed towards a teenage girl who eventually killed herself. The trial about the out-of-state incident happened in Los Angeles because MySpace servers are located here. Judge H. Wu's decision will become final once it's in writing.

Wu overturned the jury's decision because if Lori Drew were convicted of illegally accessing a computer, anyone could be guilty of a misdemeanor for breaking a website's Terms of Service (TOS).

From a legal internet perspective, many cheered Wu's move, even if they were saddened by Drew's actions and the out come for her. "For the state to deny her liberty for lying when she created an account on a social network would be excessive and chilling and imperil hundreds of thousands of people who, while doing the TOS version of jaywalking, set themselves up for selective prosecution if some chain of evidence or events can associate them to someone else’s tragedy," expressed John C Abell on Wired.