Does anyone know of a court case (civil or criminal) in which a message or messages from an online forum were used as evidence against someone? I know that it COULD happen, but has it?
Sometimes I see messages that look almost tailor-made for a prosecutor or plaintiff's attorney. Someone will say something along the lines of "If some dirtbag messes with me, I'm going to shoot him, then shoot him a couple more times to make sure he's dead". That's the sort of statement that a lawyer would love to quote to a jury to establish that Mr. Gunowner was an angry, hateful man who was just itching for an opportunity to kill someone, and so it's clear that his use of deadly force against the late Mr. Perpetrator was not a last resort, but a pre-meditated act of malice.
Then again, I wonder how feasible it would be to search all of cyber-space for juicy comments to use against someone.
Has it happened?
Sometimes I see messages that look almost tailor-made for a prosecutor or plaintiff's attorney. Someone will say something along the lines of "If some dirtbag messes with me, I'm going to shoot him, then shoot him a couple more times to make sure he's dead". That's the sort of statement that a lawyer would love to quote to a jury to establish that Mr. Gunowner was an angry, hateful man who was just itching for an opportunity to kill someone, and so it's clear that his use of deadly force against the late Mr. Perpetrator was not a last resort, but a pre-meditated act of malice.
Then again, I wonder how feasible it would be to search all of cyber-space for juicy comments to use against someone.
Has it happened?