Hans Reiser found guilty of murder

A JURY FOUND Linux file system developer Hans Reiser guilty of first-degree murder on Monday in Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland, California.

Reiser invented the novel ReiserFS Linux file system and founded his software company Namesys to further develop it by employing programmers in Russia.

Reiser, 44, stands convicted of having killed his estranged wife Nina, then 31, on Labor Day weekend in September, 2006. Jurors had deliberated for nearly three days following an almost six month long trial, during which they heard testimony from more than 60 prosecution witnesses as well as Reiser himself.

Nina Reiser disappeared after dropping the couple's two children off at Reiser's house on September 3, 2006. Reiser and his defence attorney William DuBois contended that she wasn't dead but instead had abandoned her children to flee the country and return to her native Russia, where the couple had met in 1998, after Reiser had accused her of embezzling money from his software company.

Police arrested Reiser on October 10, 2006, five weeks after Nina disappeared. He was held without bail up to and during his trial.

Without a body or eyewitnesses and with mostly circumstantial evidence, prosecutor Paul Hora had his work cut out for him when the trial began last November. He painted a picture of a failed marriage ending with a rancorous divorce and child custody battle in which Reiser was overbearing while Nina tried to carry on her life by working and studying to become a medical doctor.

Virtually the only physical evidence in the case that suggested the possibility of foul play in Nina Reiser's disappearance were inconclusive traces of her blood on a pillar in Hans Reiser's house and on a sleeping bag cover found in his car.

Other circumstantial evidence suggested that Nina Reiser had not voluntarily disappeared. Although she was never found, her minivan did turn up six days later, and in it were bags of rotting groceries along with her cellphone and purse containing cash and credit cards. The prosecution argued that if Nina had fled, she surely would have taken her money, credit cards and cellphone.

Prosecutor Hora also produced a number of witnesses who testified that Nina was a devoted mother who never would have abandoned her two small children, a boy who is now eight years old and a girl who is now six.

An Oakland police officer who had overseen the couple exchanging custody of their children testified that Reiser's behaviour towards Nina seemed menacing and he had warned her to arm herself saying, "You need to get yourself a gun."

The prosecutor suggested to the jury that Reiser might have strangled his wife, based on the fact that he is a black belt in judo, which teaches choke holds.

Throughout the prosecution case, Reiser took copious notes and interrupted his attorney repeatedly. Superior Court Judge Larry Goodman admonished Reiser on several occasions, at one point threatening to have him removed from the courtroom for being disruptive.

The prosecution's case was almost entirely built upon circumstantial evidence. Reiser's defence attorney William DuBois consistently tried to elicit uncertainty from witnesses and suggest alternative interpretations of prosecution witness testimony, attempting to establish reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors.

Perhaps far more damning in the eyes of the jury was Reiser's own suspicious behaviour in the weeks after his wife went missing. When she failed to pick up their children, he didn't attempt to call her cellphone. He bought two books on murder investigations and, when it became obvious to him that he had fallen under suspicion in Nina's disappearance, he immediately retained an attorney.

Detectives testified that, when Reiser was initially interviewed soon following Nina's disappearance, he had $9,000 in cash and his passport with him. They also testified that Reiser had adopted counter surveillance driving tactics when they were tailing him in the weeks prior to his arrest.

After the prosecution rested its case on February 14, Reiser insisted on taking the stand in his own defence, against his attorney's firm advice. He began his testimony on March 3 and spent 11 days on the witness stand. He attempted to present a "geek defense" to the jury by portraying himself as extremely logical and therefore socially inept and awkward.

As a defence strategy, Reiser's chosen tack required him to act obnoxiously, thus presenting himself to the jury as a singularly unsympathetic defendant.

In its deliberations, the jury was faced with the choice of either believing Reiser's convoluted explanations of his odd behaviour after his wife disappeared or, more simply, concluding that he was lying.

By taking the witness stand in his own defence, Reiser lifted the prosecution's burden of proving his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and placed that burden of believability on his own shoulders instead. It was maybe an arrogant move.

Given the alternatives of finding Reiser guilty of first degree murder, second degree murder or voluntary manslaughter, or finding him not guilty entirely, the jury found Reiser guilty of first degree murder, the harshest judgement.

Reiser sat quietly as a court clerk read the verdict. He asked to speak with his defence attorney as a bailiff led him out of the courtroom immediately after the verdict. Reiser faces 25 years to life in prison when he is eventually sentenced. µ

L'Inq
Wired