A Popup on your computer can land you in jail for half a century

Julie Amero lived a quiet life as a substitute teacher in an a small Connecticut town. She was assigned to a class at Kelly Middle School in Norwich, Connecticut, and just before class started, another teacher allowed her to use the computer to email her husband. Julie left to go to the bathroom and returned to find two students viewing a website on hairstyles.

She shooed the students away, but later pornagraphic images started popping up on the computer screen... all by themselves.

Now, she's been convicted of exposing seventh grade students in her class to pornography, and she faces up to 40 years in prison.

Even though the prosecution failed to check the computer for spyware or popups, and was therefore unable to refute that portion of Julie Amero's testimony, the jury still found the small town teacher guilty.

Reasonable doubt, it seems, is too big of a concept for some small-town juries.

Criminal convictions require INTENT on the Defendant's part. Under the circumstances of this case, it seems there is no way a prosecutor could prove Amero guilty BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT. That didn't matter to the jury, though. According to juror Mark Steinmetz, he voted "guilty" because, he would not want his child in Amero's classroom and asserted Amero could have unplugged the computer or turned it off.

Amero contended she was under strict orders not to shut down the computer.

Steinmatz stated he thought Amero could have even thrown a coat over the monitor to shield the pornographic images.

Okay, point conceded, but let's assume a small-town substitute teacher flustered by the unexpected pornagraphic images might not have thought about that at the time.

Facing a sentence of up to forty years in prison for not thinking to put a coat over a monitor seems a little ridiculous to me.

Maybe Norwich, Connecticut ought to do something about its educational system beyond merely upgrading the computer firewalls... its jurors don't seem to know the meaning of the basic fundamental principal of our justice system -- reasonable doubt.