Hans Reiser convicted

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Hans Reiser (believed to be Aspie) has been convicted of 1st degree murder of his wife. He is the author of ReiserFS, a filesystem that was in popular use for Linux. Wired.com gives an excellent account of the events.

He was convicted depite no body or weapon having been found on mostly circumstantial evidence, largely based on his behavior after her disappearance. Lot of very odd twists in the story.

"You are rude," he said. "You are arrogant. There are not enough words in the English language to describe the way you are."
-- Judge Goodman

I've noticed in several murder cases on television that were entirely circumstantial, the police and prosecutors using the argument "he/she didn't display the proper emotion" when informed of a death or under interrogation, as some kind of indicator of guilt. What a crock! If not displaying the socially expected emotional/facial reactions were a crime, I'd have been executed by now, for failing to high-five when a coworker won a contest or not saying good morning to everyone I pass on my way down the hall to my office, or failing to say 'congratulations' or 'I'm sorry to hear that' at a supposedly appropriate moment. Maybe they should have observed the suspect's stimming instead - was he/she rocking or swaying? fast or slow? I can tell more about an Aspie's emotional state under stress from these things than from their facial expressions.

But the guy might've actually killed his wife, you know. AS is a guarantee of neither guilt nor innocence. I wouldn't defend him if he'd actually committed murder. I wouldn't defend the guy just because he's Aspie.

After reading extensively about the case and Hans' behavior, I have to say (from the standpoint of an NT who is intimately familiar with AS) that I beleive Hans Reiser has Aspergers, but is also guilty. His actions and reactions are textbook AS---but in the context of an AS individual trying to hide a crime.
The main problem here seems to be no one was made aware of his AS. Instead--a "geek defense" was simply offered. Had I been on the jury (having a son with AS) I would have recognized his mannerisms and outbursts and would have been better able to judge his guilt or innocence from that standpoint.
Needless to say, guilty or innocent, he had no sympathy from all the NTs in the courtroom.

His defence council will totally play that card, the AS Card.

This is a truly sad thing.

If justice is served, it won't be sad at all.

They did tell the jury he problably is AS, but they didn't play the diagnosis up too much. Problably figured the jury would just think "Nuts!" instead of "different". But they did try to explain to the jury that he wasn't normal.

To those who didn't follow the story...

He met his soon to be ex-wife (and now possibly ex-person) in Russia, as a mail-order bride. They married in the States a year later. Soon after getting citizenship, she files for divorce. She has affairs, including with his best friend, an admitted masochistic serial killer (killer part withheld from the jury). She also responded to ads in Craigslist, and had plans to meet people contacted through it. She was last seen dropping the kids off at his house, where he accuses her of stealing a large amount of money from his company (something like 20K, I don't recall exactly).

Salient points...with the defence's explainations.
His car found several miles away...
...he was being followed by police, and was paranoid.
Car had an inch of water in it...
...he claims to have washed another car before, and expected there to be a hole in the floorboard (his testimony).
Car had the front seat removed...
...he was using the car to sleep in (well established), and he and his father had done it before (his and his father's testimony). Claimed it was actually a long dreamt of project to convert a car into a perfect place to sleep.
There were two books on murder found in it...
...he was a murder suspect, and the books purchased after she disappeared (had the reciept).
A sleeping bag with a large blotch of her blood on it (I think they said roughly a foot in diameter)...
...she had slept in it during her time of the month during a camping trip (his testimony).
Her blood was found in his house...
...that she had lived in for several years.
Ex-wife's car was found two miles away, with grocieries and some cash.
Her cell phone had the battery removed.
His cell-phone had the battery removed...
...becuase he was under survellience.
He went to pick his kids up from school on one of her days...
...but they're his kids too.
When arrested, he has several thousand dollars and his passport on him...
...again, under surveillence, and paranoid. Also runs a multinational company.

Considering the kids are now with their grandmother in Russia, and the woman had not displayed the highest of morals, I don't think there's a reasonable doubt she's dead. Since she "cavorted" with people not showing the highest of morals, and had arrangements to meet people that nothing is known about (the police never investigated her Craiglist contacts), I don't think there's a reasonable doubt he did it (assuming "it" had been done). Not to mention, this also lowers the possibility she is dead, since she may have been abducted.

There was other evidence presented, but was of lesser importance, and all amounted to the fact that an odd father of kids whose status were in doubt, while in a bitter divorce, was under suspicion for murder and being followed after his wife disappears was acting oddly. I'm not defending him because he's AS so couldn't have done it... But behavior after-the-fact shouldn't be weighed heavily in normal murder cases. In this one, less so, especially since the prosecution painted him as a cold-blooded methodical person, who did a really crappy job of cleaning up after himself if he did it.

As Vince Dunn, a juror, said, "I was looking at his eyes. He was faking it." ... "After a while, we started to see how arrogant he was, how little sympathy he had for his wife. He was thinking this out."

Whether guilty or not,

This is a truly sad thing.

Well, if my wife was that much of a whore I too wouldn't have been as compassionate when learning of her death.

A news story today indicates that he might be planning to provide new evidence, such as the location of the body, in exchange for a lighter sentence:

http://www.nbc11.com/news/16072538/detail.html