The highly debated case involving a mother accused of participating in a MySpace hoax that led to the suicide of a 13 year old girl, registered yesterday its closing arguments. From this point on, her fate is in the hands of the jurors.

The mother, 49 year old Lori Drew, is accused of causing emotional distress to Megan Meier. Even though at first she was thought to be responsible for the fake MySpace account used to send the messages, the woman’s daughter Sarah explained that the one who created the ‘Josh Evans’ account was a friend of the family called Ashley Grills. According to the testimonies, Drew was only later told of the action and she considered it a good idea at the time.

The three used the account to communicate with Megan and establish a connection through their discussions. At a certain moment, when they considered that a switch in ‘Josh’s’ attitude would cause the most pain, they started sending cruel messages, saying that the world would be a better place without her. Allegedly, the plan was to use the account to find out if Megan was spreading rumors about Sarah. Unfortunately, the situation took a whole different direction.

"Lori Drew decided to humiliate a child," U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien said during his closing statement. "The only way she could harm this pretty little girl was with a computer. She chose to use a computer to hurt a little girl, and for four weeks she enjoyed it," he added.

Drew’s lawyer, Dean Steward, addressed the jurors and demanded them to remember that she is not charged with homicide in the death of Megan Meier. "If you hadn't heard the indictment read to you, you'd think this was a homicide case," he said. "And it's not a homicide case. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a computer case, and that's what you need to decide." The defense is based on the fact that Drew, her daughter and Ashley Grills cannot be accused of violating MySpace’s terms-of-service agreement, because nobody ever reads the seven-page document. "Nobody reads these things, nobody. [...] How can you violate something when you haven't even read it? End of case. The case is over," he concluded.

Still, the prosecution keeps its arguments strong, saying that the rules of the social networking Web site are fairly simple and widely known: users must not lie, they must not pretend to be someone else or use the site to harass others – and this is exactly what the three did in the prosecution’s opinion.

There are many aspects and elements involved in this case, as the guilt is shared by more than one person. Megan’s parents should have paid a lot more attention to their daughter’s activities on the computer and also to her behavior.

The woman is charged with conspiracy and also for accessing computers without authorization. She pleaded not guilty on all counts, but if she will be convicted, she faces 20 years in prison. It is now up to the jury to decide the proper punishment, if any of course, that Lori Drew deserves.