Judge tentatively dismisses conviction in MySpace case

02 July 2009 @ 03:56 pm EDT

A U.S. federal judge on Thursday tentatively overturned the conviction of a suburban mother accused of driving a love-lorn 13-year-old girl to suicide by tormenting her with a fake MySpace persona.


The MySpace homepage
The MySpace homepage in an undated image courtesy of the company.
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The judge ruled that prosecutors' application of a federal anti-hacking statute against the Missouri woman, Lori Drew, was selective and unconstitutionally vague.

The judge said his ruling, dismissing Drew's conviction on three misdemeanor counts of accessing a computer without authorization, would be tentative until a written opinion in the cyber-bullying case is issued.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Jackie Frank)

Copyright 2009 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.

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