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GEEK_DEFENSE

                                                   February 24, 2006
During Hans Reiser's trial, the
defense attorney tried to argue
the same point that had been               People who wanted to dismiss this
bothering me: was Reiser                   possibility called this "the geek
being treated unfairly just                defense", ala "the twinkie defense".
because he was a weird guy?
                                                 THE_LEGENDARY_TWINKIE
 I said a number of things like this
 on slashdot back in those days:

      "... he's an eccentric outsider,
      being put on trial for Not Being
      Normal ('Did you ever think about a    The "wedding" line was a
      church wedding?'  Ha. Ha.)... This     snide remark made by the
      supposed 'geek defense' is just a      judge, as I remember it.
      reminder that people have a right
      to be eccentric."


      "... The actual evidence against Reiser
      is pretty weak -- he did some weird
      things, but then the circumstances were
      weird, and he's a weird guy, so?"          I think the "weak evidence"
                                                 I was referring to was some
                                                 biological traces that the
      "If he's actually convicted, it            prosecution was playing up:
      won't be so much that the evidence         blood stains!  And they're
      was against him, but because he's          hers!  Two stains, only one
      an odd character, and the Jury went        definitely blood, and they
      against him because of that."              couldn't tell how old they are.
                                                 And she used to live with
      "The prosecutor is not shy about           him.                      
      putting him on trial for Being                                        
      Weird, the defense can not                 OUTLINE_OF_EVIDENCE
      possibly hide the fact that he's                                      
      Weird, so it's almost the only                 This bit about blood
      option: don't discriminate against             stains was leaked to    
      my client because he's Weird."                 the press very early    
                                                     on, even before jury    
                                                     selection.              
                                                     
                                                     If this was the
                                                     police trying to
                                                     convict him in our
                                                     minds, it has the
                                                     opposite effect on
                                                     me: I was afraid he
                                                     was being railroaded.
                                                     
                                                     JUDGING_JURIES



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