Man jailed 16 months, and counting, for refusing to decrypt hard drives

["Dave Farber" <dave () farber net>]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: Sun, Feb 12, 2017 at 2:21 PM
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Man jailed 16 months, and counting, for refusing to
decrypt hard drives
To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>


Man jailed 16 months, and counting, for refusing to decrypt hard drives
He’s not charged with a crime. Judge demands he help prosecutors build
their case.
By DAVID KRAVETS
Feb 12 2017
<
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/02/justice-naps-man-jailed-16-months-for-refusing-to-reveal-passwords/
>

Francis Rawls, a former Philadelphia police sergeant, has been in the
Philadelphia Federal Detention Center for more than 16 months. His crime:
the fired police officer has been found in contempt of court for refusing a
judge's order to unlock two hard drives the authorities believe contain
child pornography. Theoretically, Rawls can remain jailed indefinitely
until he complies.

The federal court system appears to be in no hurry to resolve an unresolved
legal issue: does the Fifth Amendment protect the public from being forced
to decrypt their digital belongings? Until this is answered, Rawls is
likely to continue to languish behind bars. A federal appeals court heard
oral arguments about Rawls' plight last September. So far, there's been no
response from the US 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Philadelphia.

Rawls was thrown in the slammer on September 30, 2015 "until such time that
he fully complies" (PDF) with a court order to unlock his hard drives. A
child-porn investigation focused on Rawls when prosecutors were monitoring
the online network, Freenet. They executed a search warrant in 2015 at
Rawls' home. The authorities say it's a "foregone conclusion" that illicit
porn is on those drives. But they cannot know for sure unless Rawls hands
them the alleged evidence that is encrypted with Apple's standard FileVault
software.

His plight is not garnering public sympathy. Men suspected of possessing
child pornography never do. But his case highlights a vexing legal vacuum
in this digital era, when encryption is becoming part of the national
discussion. For years, both Apple and Microsoft have offered desktop users
the ability to turn on full disk encryption. And data on Android and Apple
mobile phones can easily be encrypted.

Rawls' attorney, Federal Public Defender Keith Donoghue, declined comment
for this story. But he has argued in court that his client is being "held
without charges" (PDF) and that he should be released immediately.

In winning the contempt-of-court order, the authorities cited a 1789 law
known as the All Writs Act to compel (PDF) Rawls to decrypt—and he refused.
The All Writs Act was the same law the Justice Department asserted in its
legal battle with Apple, in which a magistrate judge ordered Apple to
produce code to enable the FBI to decrypt the iPhone used by one of two
shooters who killed 14 people at a San Bernardino County government
building. The government dropped the case when the authorities paid a
reported $1 million for a hack.

The reason why Rawls is idling behind bars without charges is twofold:
first, the nation's appellate courts have no deadlines on when they must
issue an opinion. And second, the Supreme Court has never addressed the
compelled decryption issue.

[snip]

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