Lori Drew, the woman allegedly responsible for the suicide
of 13-year-old MySpace user Megan Meier, filed three motions in the Los Angeles
federal court this week, seeking dismissal of all charges against her in the
absence of laws to specifically prohibit her conduct.
According to The
Washington Post, defense attorney H. Dean Steward wrote in one of the
motions that “the government, in its zeal to charge Lori Drew with something,
anything, has tried to criminalize everyday, ordinary conduct: the wayward or misuse of a social-network
website.”
Lori Drew is accused of creating a false MySpace identity and
using the profile in order to find out what Megan Meier thought of her
daughter. Hiding behind the identity of “16-year-old Josh Evans,” Drew maintained
a close online relationship with the teenage girl the month before her suicide.
In October 2006, Megan started receiving hurtful messages
from Josh, the last of which made the 13-year-old commit suicide: “The world
would be a better place without you.” Megan hanged herself in the bedroom
closet shortly after that.
The case drew a lot of attention from both the media and
authorities, as they were desperately trying to find the statute for a criminal
prosecution against Drew. Although she is considered to be morally responsible
for Megan’s suicide, there is no specific law for such cases.
Drew’s lawyer hangs on to that, saying the Computer Fraud
and Abuse Act that supports the accusations against Drew has only been used
against hackers and its irrelevant in his client’s case.
Lori Drew was indicted in May for one count of conspiracy
and three counts of accessing a computer without authorization for inflicting
emotional distress, all adding up to 20 years in prison. In June, she pleaded
not guilty in a Los Angeles federal court.
Unfortunately, the situation is as complicated as it gets. Although
many believe Drew to be responsible for the death of Megan Meier, others
believe that prosecuting her means every person on the Internet who has broken
terms of service for any website could be liable to the same accusations.
“The problem with this case is it makes a criminal out of
virtually everybody online,” Mark Rasch, former computer crime prosecutor at
the Department of Justice, told The Post. The only solution to stopping this
kind of behavior and make the responsible for Megan’s death pay, is to create
a new law, which specifically refers to cyber-harassment.
