'GTA 6' Leaker is Unfit to Stand Trial, Say Group of Psychiatrists (gamerant.com) 68
A new article in Game Rant points out that the 2013 game Grand Theft Auto V was "the most successful piece of fictional media ever made, amassing almost 8 billion dollars." So with a sequel planned, it was a big deal when 50 minutes of authentic pre-release footage was leaked by a U.K. teenager.
Game Rant reports that the trial of that teenager has begun. But a group of psychiatrists has just declared that the teenager "is unable to stand trial, so instead, the jury will decide if he committed these alleged crimes instead of delivering a verdict based on his guilt." 18-year-old Arion Kurtaj, a member of the hacker group named Lapsus$, attempted to blackmail Rockstar Games by releasing the Grand Theft Auto 6 source code online. Kurtaj has a history of hacking into giant companies, like when he caused nearly three million dollars of damage to Uber by releasing private information...
This story almost feels like a side mission in Grand Theft Auto 6, but it's all true. Kurtaj also had an unnamed partner in crime who demanded a four million dollar ransom from EE, a British mobile company. The two hackers were known as "key players" in Lapsus$. Lapsus$ has members all over the world and is suspected to be highly organized. The group has attacked companies as big as Samsung, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Ubisoft.
Kurtaj has been charged with three counts of blackmail, as well as nine other offenses, including fraud.
Game Rant reports that the trial of that teenager has begun. But a group of psychiatrists has just declared that the teenager "is unable to stand trial, so instead, the jury will decide if he committed these alleged crimes instead of delivering a verdict based on his guilt." 18-year-old Arion Kurtaj, a member of the hacker group named Lapsus$, attempted to blackmail Rockstar Games by releasing the Grand Theft Auto 6 source code online. Kurtaj has a history of hacking into giant companies, like when he caused nearly three million dollars of damage to Uber by releasing private information...
This story almost feels like a side mission in Grand Theft Auto 6, but it's all true. Kurtaj also had an unnamed partner in crime who demanded a four million dollar ransom from EE, a British mobile company. The two hackers were known as "key players" in Lapsus$. Lapsus$ has members all over the world and is suspected to be highly organized. The group has attacked companies as big as Samsung, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Ubisoft.
Kurtaj has been charged with three counts of blackmail, as well as nine other offenses, including fraud.
You are who you are. (Score:1, Troll)
'Unfit due to being crazy' - no they are just a crazy person.
Re:You are who you are. (Score:4, Insightful)
I'll agree with you when the punishments stop being so punitive that it's clear they're just there to make puritans feel better
Re:You are who you are. (Score:4, Informative)
How about "guilty of having committed the crime, but not responsible for one's actions". The goal being to house and possibly treat the underlying condition (in a mental treatment facility, for example) rather than to punishment in a prison.
Re:You are who you are. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:You are who you are. (Score:5, Insightful)
The entire US prison model is rooted in revenge. Part of the model is really never allowing a convict to have a meaningful role in society. Even back in the 1700s, the reason why people raised their right hand to swear an oath was to show that they were not branded (larceny and other offenses would result in the first letter being branded on the person's hand.) Add the entire thing about keeping a boot on the neck of slaves, not to mention the entire puritanism beliefs, and you now have jail/prison designed to permanently lock people from any type of meaningful success.
The ironic thing is if rehabilitation was the focus, it would be better for all involved, because it would mean more taxpayers. Yes, there will still be the superfelons who prey on others, but they will get locked up anyway. It is the fact that even a simple arrest or conviction will ensure someone can't find meaningful work or get a career going.
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Re: You are who you are. (Score:2)
Re: You are who you are. (Score:1)
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The clockwork orange fallacy. (Score:2)
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> Rehabilitation isn't magic. It doesn't necessarily work at all.
Same with surgery. How does the idea of uncertainty, apply here?
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A lot of criminals end up as such because they came from bad backrgounds, bad parenting and bad role models growing up.
It stands to reason that if you can end up with a higher chance of engaging in criminal behavior because of these factors, that you can also be trained how to not behave in a criminal way, given the right sort of support, training and guidance.
It's not going to work for everyone, but it's still worth the effort to get a large percentage of criminals to change their ways and become a benefit
Yeah, that's the theory. (Score:2)
Now operant conditioning has some empirical basis. But that's considered cruel and dehumanizing, so... no.
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A lot of criminals end up as such because they came from bad backrgounds, bad parenting and bad role models growing up.
That said, I still want to see pedos fed to dogs through a woodchipper.
Sadly it seems like we are going in the opposite direction: instead of rehab and education, cities are moving to catch and release, or don't arrest at all, and punishment for pedos is being reduced. Lawmakers recently blocked a bill to make child sex trafficking a felony, which means they can serve only 4 years for being found guilty of child sex trafficking [californiaglobe.com] and California passed a law saying that a 24 year old that has sex with a 14 year old (or any 10 year age gap) is not a sex offender.
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The issue is people do have the incentive and the ability to fake disorders, at least in the UK system. I recall an episode of This American Life about a British thief that did the same [thisamericanlife.org]:
Since he confessed and plead guilty, the case went right to sentencing. Edwin was looking at 10 years for burglary and 14 years for selling stolen goods. But during the sentencing process, Edwin's lawyers brought in a psychologist who diagnosed him with Asperger's syndrome. That changed everything.
[...]
So he sentenced Edwin
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I'll agree with you when the punishments stop being so punitive that it's clear they're just there to make puritans feel better
Punishments are supposed to be punitive. You can't try to blackmail someone and think nothing will happen.
Unless you want to go the route of corporate punishment when millions of fake accounts are opened in people's names and the company gets a slap on the wrist while no one goes to jail.
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Punishments shouldn't be punitive but they should be a disincentive to commit the crime, they should also protect society. You need to get the balance right, taking a persons ability to get a job for ever seems excessive, leaving them little alternative but to continue to be a criminal. Jailing them away while they remain a risk to society is excessive.
Corporate punishment is on the other end of the scale where quite often it doesn't even make up for the profit they made, and that is only when they get cau
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Punishments are supposed to be punitive to make potentional criminals fear doing the crime, and thus prevent crime - not for revenge. If the purpose was for revenge then court systems would give the opportunity for say, the family member of murder victims the opportunity to personally press the button.
However, this only works if criminals actually even think they will get caught, or if they actually consider the punishment for the crime first. In a lot of cases, it's pretty clear that they dont.
Therefore, a
Re: You are who you are. (Score:3)
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Prison is meant to be a storage facility, not a torture chamber.
Really, it should be a school. Protection from society is for sure a reason but 95% of people in prison will be let out at some point and the goal should be when they are out they can actually rejoin society.
The recividivism rate in the US is very poor, like 44% which is massive, massive failure on the entire system. There are multiple things we do wrong, from sentencing, to conditions to our general social safety net.
Re: You are who you are. (Score:2)
Wait. What? Who is denying prisoners prescribed medication?
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This recent news article [npr.org] comes to mind, describing how someone was jailed pre-trial for two days on misdemeanor charges, and was denied medication to prevent rejection of a transplanted heart. He died a few days later.
One case doesn't necessarily reflect the state of prisons everywhere in the US (and yes, this was a jail rather than a prison), but this was pretty egregious.
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By European standards it is quite harsh.
Firstly, sentences for things like using prohibited drugs are usually considered "spent" when you leave prison or probation, i.e. you don't have to tell employers about them. The idea is to avoid a situation like in the US where going straight is extremely difficult because nobody wants to employ a felon.
Secondly, conditions in many US prisons are considered inhumane. Solitary confinement is considered a form of torture and only to be used when it is necessary to prot
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Nearly always male
from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.go... [nih.gov]
states:
Although women comprise more than half the U.S. population, they committed only 14.7% of the homicides noted during the study interval
While the rate is significantly more than men, I don't think that is nearly always
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You won't be a fucking idiot when you understand that people need to be held responsible for their actions. I'd like to read about you and people like you when it happens you become a victim of crime. It feels like poetic justice every that happens. It is the only time I cheer for criminals.
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You won't be a fucking idiot when you understand that people need to be held responsible for their actions.
I'm glad to hear you support reparations. Hey, what's the legal penalty for violating a treaty for profit?
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Yet another supporter of criminals heard from.
Re: You are who you are. (Score:2)
I'd like to read about you and people like you when it happens you become a victim of crime.
Then you do as Jesus commanded and give the criminal twice as much as he robbed you, walk twice as long as the robbed ordered you to walk, offer the other cheek, all the while telling him about salvation in the afterlife, and refusing to shut up when he points the gun at your angry. Best case scenario, they convert and stop being a criminal. Worst case scenario, you die and go to Heaven.
Oh, wait. That's what Christians do. I think you mean Americans instead of Christians? Hmm... well, in that case you take
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Trump should have been prosecuted ages ago. He deserves to be in prison. Why do you assume people who understand criminals need to be removed from the society they are abusing are conservatives/republicans. Some of us like to live as centrists who want to see sense come back to the world. Maybe you need to have more people break into your home, or be mugged or something. Then you might understand.
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I'd rather have criminals given a path to some means of doing stuff in life other than being tossed back on the streets with zero chance of employment... which means the only way they have for surviving is to find another victim. Yes, locking them up and throwing away the key sounds "cool" and "tough on time", but what you wind up with someone who gets released eventually, and whose sole means of survival is violence. Yes, they will wind up getting locked up again, but this type of correction system ensur
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I like the idea of caning. Severe corporal punishment. Attach a misdemeanour conviction to it the first time. Then repeat for repeat offences but with criminal convictions. You hurt someone, cause them permanent psychological harm by a criminal action, why should the perpetrator get any sympathy. They've scarred someone for life, why should the bad get is easy the rest of their life. Maybe if parents lately actually disciplined their kids, they would grow up knowing there are consequences to their actions a
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I like the idea of caning. Severe corporal punishment.
Not my kink, but ok for you, if consensual. But suggesting it be forced on other people is pretty sick. You should see someone about your need for others to be abused.
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I'll agree with you when the punishments stop being so punitive that it's clear they're just there to make puritans feel better
I agree with this. Especially first offenses or accidents. And there needs to be a way for people to leave and work and pay bills so there is a life to return to after punishment is served. Jail becomes a downward spiral for the poor that commit crimes because they're poor and don't know how to correct the situation. They're usually not lazy, they just don't know what else to do to make a living income.
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Mentally unfit means you can't be rehabilitated. It really shouldn't be something you try to hide behind to avoid consequences, because it should result in involuntary permanent committal.
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that means the case can be reopened and brought to court.
Why? If at the time of commission of a crime, the perpetrator was not responsible for their actions, that is the influencing factor on their disposition (treatment, punishment). If later on, they become aware of and under control of their actions, that should be the goal of rehabilitation.
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I'm not sure where to even begin with what you wrote.
You must, at least, understand that a person's mental state is both recognized and evaluated in a court, yes?
If some is sufferring from, say, sleepwalking, that is not an attempt to circumvent the laws, to excuse actions claiming "insanity".
One particularly striking example is that of Mark Schall.
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(i do not remember if Schall is the name of the character, or the person, there is a film inspired by this incident)
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If a dog bites a human that is the end of the dog regardless of any mental state the dog was in. We humans are way too lenient to our own kind.
To say I disagree with many facets of our justice system is an understatement.
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You are woefully unaware of the subtleties involved and this lack of understanding leads to your reductive (and "one size fits all") approach.
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Sure, there are pe
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Some general information on Wikipedia, that you'd have found yourself if you bothered to spend 5 seconds to type "mentally unfit to stand trial" into google. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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I can't speak to British law. In the USA, competency to stand trial is not the same as innocence due to insanity. A person who is not able to understand the nature and consequences of the charges against them cannot be given a fair trial. In some cases patients are forcibly medicated. If treatment is successful the patient would then face trial. People who don't respond to treatment can be held indefinitely under psychiatric care. This often results in a defendant being incarcerated much longer than if
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Genuin Mental illness is hard to fake. Forensic Psychiatrists spend their lifetimes sorting out whos genuinely mad and whos faking it, and if my experiencee working in the courts is anything to go by, i
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Bullshit (Score:5, Informative)
He knew exactly what was he was doing. He, and his partner in crime, proceeded on multiple times to break into someone else's network and steal information, then tried to blackmail the company.
You don't do just "happen" to get into someone's network and just "happen" to find secrets or unreleased software and just "happen" to demand money in exchange for not releasing the information. Everything was calculated.
Lock him up. Isn't that what folks on here say when a hacker infiltrates a hospital or electrical system? Or is it because it's only big, bad software companies that this can be excused?
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Unfit to Stand Trial is for suff Slender Man girls (Score:2)
Unfit to Stand Trial is for stuff like Slender Man girls.
I don't think that any hacker want to end up being commited to an state mental health institution and that is after an not guilty by mental disease or defect.
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Yeah. But if the alternative is doing time in a state of federal lockup, I don't think that they'd like this much either. Hacker probably doesn't rank very high on the prisoners' pecking order of respect. And the stereotypical hacker probably won't last long before becoming someone's bitch. Those hipster Krav Maga lessons aren't going to go far in gen pop.
I'll venture a guess that they will choose the asylum.
Not buying it (Score:1)
Just means any "disability", right? (Score:2)
I don't know UK court law, but Google claimed...
"According to the law in England and Wales, you can only be found unfit to stand trial if you are 'under a disability'. This is quite a broad definition. Someone with epilepsy may be deemed disabled."
And in the US things like ADHD and Autism are considered "disabilities". Anyone somewhat anti-social could qualify to be on the Autism Spectrum. That doesn't mean they didn't know what they were doing, or are unable to function in many other ways.
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Start looking at:
and what comes after that, particularly "What is a trial of fact?" and "What are the possible outcomes after a trial of fact?".