Should Gary McKinnon Be Extradited to the US?
Shortly after 9/11, Gary McKinnon—a “UFO-obsessed computer hacker”—allegedly hacked his way into 97 computers belonging to NASA, the Department of Defense and several branches of the US military. The European Court of Human Rights has cleared the way for McKinnon, who is British, to be extradited to the US where he would face eight charges of computer fraud. McKinnon appealed this decision and lost, and autism experts, politicians, lawyers and civil rights campaigners have been urging home secretary Jacqui Smith to intervene so McKinnon can be tried in Britain rather than being extradited to the US.
Experts including Simon Baron-Cohen, professor of developmental psychopathology at Cambridge University, were commissioned to access McKinnon, who has been recently diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, as reported in today’s Guardian. Smith has rejected the assessment:
‘We’re upset and disappointed with the Home Secretary’s decision, as she has clearly not given proper consideration to Gary being diagnosed with Asperger’s,’ said his mother, Janis.
According to a fresh legal challenge by McKinnon’s team: ‘There remains a real risk of the claimant being detained pre-trial and thereafter being imprisoned at a high-security institution, despite suffering from Asperger’s syndrome, which would violate the prohibition on inhuman treatment protected by Article 3 of the Convention.’
McKinnon’s lawyers note that there would be “profound implications” for their client’s mental health if he were put in a high-security prison in the US.
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POSTED IN: Asperger's Syndrome, Crime, Legal Issues, Technology
17 opinions for Should Gary McKinnon Be Extradited to the US?
Beth
Oct 26, 2008 at 1:46 pm
We have a situation here in Massachusetts where a teenager with Asperger’s named John Odgren is being held while awaiting trial for murdering a classmate. I believe that he is being held in some sort of jail rather than a hospital or similar situation where mental health support would be provided.
As a mom of an Asperger guy, it does concern me because my son falls into a big gray area where he is functional enough to be considered mentally competent but he has some definite delays in some areas. I really pray that he never gets into any trouble since I am afraid he would not be treated appropriately, even in Massachusetts which I like to think is a fairly progressive state.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Oct 26, 2008 at 2:02 pm
@Beth,
John Odgren’s case sparked a lot of discussion–
http://www.autismvox.com/too-much-tragedy-student-charged-in-fatal-stabbing-of-classmate-2/
Apparently his trial was set to begin Sept 15th but is delayed while there’s deliberations about the use of jailhouse recordings.
Justthisguy
Oct 26, 2008 at 2:11 pm
I am going to use some very bad language, here. Y’all have been warned.
A Statist/Socialist with a silly name is Home Secretary? NuLabour, same as Old Labour. Socialists are bullies, inherently.
Oh, and PC does not stand for Political Correctness, it stands for Police C[***] [blog author's editing---hope that's all right].
Justthisguy
Oct 26, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Thanks, Professor! I didn’t know the standards here, and was so exercised I just let it flow, so to speak.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Oct 26, 2008 at 2:36 pm
It’s quite all right—I have gotten comments with certain, er, words and haven’t moderated them (the “certain words” being sometimes directed to me).
CS
Oct 26, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Should McKinnon be extradited? Short answer is yes. Mr. McKinnon knew what he was doing, diagnosis via defense strategy is not a good one. Looking at interviews of him I believe he knew exactly what he was doing.
Cliff
Oct 26, 2008 at 5:40 pm
“I am afraid he would not be treated appropriately, even in Massachusetts which I like to think is a fairly progressive state.”
Heh, JRC and Boston (one of the more racist and sexist cities I happened to step foot in) aside. Going to school here, I wouldn’t be inclined to call Mass. uncritically progressive. It’s not a wholly transparent deal.
But as to the actual question; I don’t think there’s a particular reason that he shouldn’t be extradited. High-security prisons have serious implication as to mental health, regardless of neurological type. And I don’t think there was any kind of misunderstanding in this case which would qualify the case such to make him innocent of this particular crime.
Cliff
Brett
Oct 26, 2008 at 5:58 pm
This case once again raises the question of what, if any, consideration should be given to the fact that a suspect/defendant in a criminal trial is autistic. I don’t think that you can make any blanket statements, obviously; case by case is about the only way to go.
In this case, I agree with CS that McKinnon’s Asperger’s diagnosis is not relevant.
As for the statement attributed to McKinnon’s lawyers at the end of your post: I think that there are “profound implications” for the mental health of anyone who might find themselves incarcerated in a maximum security prison.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Oct 26, 2008 at 10:17 pm
The earlier coverage of McKinnon’s case noted that his diagnosis of Asperger’s had yet to be confirmed. This latest guardian article started describing him as “UFO-obsessed”—-other coverage at Wired, the BBC.
David N. Andrews M. Ed. (Distinction)
Oct 27, 2008 at 1:57 am
“Should McKinnon be extradited? Short answer is yes. Mr. McKinnon knew what he was doing, diagnosis via defense strategy is not a good one. Looking at interviews of him I believe he knew exactly what he was doing.”
Well, apart from the idea of a ‘diagnosis via defence’ strategy (the diagnosis not being offered in any way as an actual defence against charges, since it is actually no defence in law), I agree: he was not quite fully aware since he used to be essentially stoned and pissed when he was doing what he was doing; but this in and of itself is also a slight irrelevancy, since any automatism defence he might wish to have offered on that basis would be invalid (he got himself stoned and pissed, ergo this was voluntary automatism… which is not a defence at law). He knew enough about the quality of his acts for him to have been capable of forming the necessary mens rea, ethanol and THC notwithstanding. And - let’s face it - what kind of tosser leaves little notes on systems he’s hacked into and doesn’t think he’s going to get caught?
He must have known what he was doing and he must have known that it was illegal, ergo he has no defence at law, and - as you quite correctly state - the diagnosis (which was finalised) is in fact irrelevant with respect to establishment of guilt and to judicial outcome.
As for the question of extradition: strictly speaking, there is no bar to his being extradicted. It is, however, incumbent on the United States to guarantee that his human rights will be respected and upheld unequivocally. Sadly, as we all know, the US is not quite so good at doing this (Guantanamo Bay, Abu Graibh, extraordinary renditions, and so on do not inspire confidence I’m afraid). So, if and only if the US will guarantee that those rights would not be infringed, then I’d see no bar to extradition. If, on the other hand, the US authorities refused to give such a guarantee, I myself would immediately become suspicious of their motives for extradicting him in the first place, since there is also no actual bar to his case being heard in the UK.
As far as I am aware, in Gary McKinnin’s case, Asperger syndrome has not been offered as a defence against charges but as a mitigating circumstance against the US administration’s motion to extradict to America.
David N. Andrews M. Ed. (Distinction)
Oct 27, 2008 at 1:58 am
McKinnin->McKinnon.
Typo.
David N. Andrews M. Ed. (Distinction)
Oct 27, 2008 at 2:02 am
“I think that there are ‘profound implications’ for the mental health of anyone who might find themselves incarcerated in a maximum security prison.”
This would be my concern, were I GM’s psychologist. Thankfully for me, I am not. But that fact is irrelevant with regard to a right to be concerned about the fate of anyone entering the CJS of any given country.
Patrick
Oct 27, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Almost makes me want to hear that the extradition appeal wins, and his case heard in UK. At least this might send the political message that ‘we are not amused’ with the creative-custody arrangements that US has been using.
Justthisguy
Oct 27, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Patrick, I was thinking along those lines, too. The UK gummint, and the one here in the States, both of them, don’t seem to care much anymore about the ancient rights of Englishmen. We, here, fought a revolution about that. I just hate the “whatever any government wants, be it our own or foreign, let them have that” attitude I see among so many folks.
Justthisguy
Oct 27, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Oh, and on AS as a defense against a real “mens rea” crime, I say that’s nonsense. Most aspies with whose Internet writings I’m familiar are more like saying “Git a Rope” when somebody suggests aspitude should excuse a person from punishment for doing something he knew was wrong.
I think of the famous case of Captain Lisa Nowak, USN, whose lawyer invoked AS in his long list of excuses for his client’s behavior. There is an Encyclopedia Dramatica article about her.
Let that educate all of us, that we not have an ED article written about us. [shudder]
Lorna
Nov 9, 2008 at 10:14 am
He didn’t murder or rape anyone. This was a stupid and not a malicious crime.
Gary McKinnon was told almost seven years ago by the U.K police that he would get a six months community service sentence. In the end the British decided not to prosecute because the crime was too trivial.
For the U.S to arrest him several years later once the new extradition treaty was being used, and when the U.S would no longer have to privide any evidence is really not on.
Gary McKinnon admitted computer misuse but has always denied the alleged damage.
No one has ever been extradited for computer misuse and no one should ever be extradited for computer misuse or for a non violent crime.
Gary should be tried in his own country in the U.K and not dragged from the country of his Birth for a minor crime.
As someone else said; it’s about time the U.S grew up and got a sense of Humour and concentrated on real terrorism and more importantly, on making their computer systems more secure.
If Gary McKinnon could walk into their systems using an old “Dial Up” computer, what chance would the U.S stand against a real terrorist.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Nov 12, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Chris Huhne argues (in today’s Guardian) that extraditing McKinnon is “cruel” and “inhumane” and notes his recent diagnosis of Asperger’s.
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