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November 3, 2004

Front-row seat at the Virgina spam trial

Author and anti-spam activist John Levine had a front-row seat at the recent spam trial in Virginia's Loudon District Court. Levine served as the prosecution's expert witness in the criminal case against Jeremy Jaynes (aka Gaven Stubberfield) and two accomplices.

On Wednesday, a jury recommended that Jaynes be sentenced to nine years in prison for violating the state's anti-spam law.

Jaynes, 30, allegedly made millions of dollars from the spam operation, which prosecutors depicted as built on fraud. (Jaynes was convicted on three counts of sending e-mails with fraudulent and untraceable routing information.)

Jaynes' lawyers complained that the sentence was excessive compared to prison terms given to robbers and rapists.

At one point in the trial, a defense attorney called Levine a biased witness because of his work for the Anti-Spam Research Group. (Levine also graciously served as technical reviewer for Spam Kings.)

A judge will consider the jury's sentencing recommendation in February.

Leesburg Today, a Virginia paper, has been providing detailed coverage of the trial. (Stories are here, and here, with the sentencing covered here.)

Posted by brian at November 3, 2004 5:45 PM