This Just In: Aye Carumba! Star Simpson Gets A Pretty Good Deal

Published Jun 03 2008, 01:13 PM by Harvey Silverglate

Last September, Harvey wrote in The Free For All about Star Simpson -- the MIT student who was arrested at Logan Airport for wearing a (prank) sweatshirt displaying a working circuit board connected to a battery -- and predicted that "there is no way prosecutors can convince twelve sane jurors that a student, wearing such a sweatshirt with the flashing lights tacked onto the outside rather than hidden underneath her clothing, was actually trying to perpetrate a hoax that she was a suicide bomber." Well, this morning's Boston Herald confirmed Harvey's prediction, reporting that the DA's office decided not to pursue the hoax charges because they could not have proven her "intent to cause anxiety, unrest, fear or personal discomfort" -- a necessary element of the crime -- to a jury. Instead, she gets pre-trial probation for the disorderly conduct charge, and prosecutors plan to drop that charge in a year if she completes community service and doesn't get into any more trouble.

Updated (6/10/08 1:30pm): Readers who access The Free For All through the old site rather than the new site might see this post misattributed below to Wendy Kaminer because of software limitations with the old system. The post was penned by James Tierney, a research assistant for Harvey Silverglate.

Filed Under: criminal justice, free speech, irrationalism, terrorism

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Filed Under: criminal justice, free speech, irrationalism, terrorism

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This Just In: Aye Carumba! Star Simpson Gets A Pretty Good Deal

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