MIT bomb-scare student case may be futile

Published: Sept. 23, 2007 at 3:56 PM
Order reprints
BOSTON, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Legal analysts say chances are slim of getting a conviction against a college student whose sweatshirt triggered a security crisis in Boston, a report says.

Star Anna Simpson, 19, of Hawaii, was arrested Friday at Logan International Airport for wearing a sweatshirt with a lit circuit board connected to a 9-volt battery, police said.

Prosecutors have said the will follow the letter of the law in charging Simpson, a sophomore at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Boston Herald reported Sunday.

The odds of obtaining a conviction are slim, said legal analysts, including Harvey Silvergate, a criminal defense lawyer.

“I don’t think you could get 12 out of 12 jurors to agree this student actually meant for people to think she had a bomb,” Silvergate said. “A suicide bomber is going to hide the bomb, not wear it on the front of their shirt.”


© 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.



San Francisco targets non-native kelp (9 min)
Fruit, vegetable intake may reduce colds (11 min)
'Feeling' is No. 1 on U.S. record chart (15 min)
G8 agrees to work on trade matters (21 min)
Interagency law efforts nab 35K bad guys (22 min)
Internet, globalization shape new words (24 min)
Teacher allegedly attacked student (27 min)
fark
When trying to get away from the police, driving off a boat launch only works on tv and the movies....
Sears, Kmart already selling Christmas merchandise
MoveOn.org draws a crowd of 30 demonstrators in Alabama. None miss work
People were looking for sexual favors on Craigslist in exchange for tickets to Michael Jackson's...
Toronto mayor tries to tell world everything is fine; cut off as press conference attacked by giant...
"If it weren't for overdraft fees, 45% of banks and credit unions wouldn't have made money in 2008"...