Hans Reiser: Once a Linux Visionary, Now Accused of Murder
Hans Reiser, the main man behind the ReiserFS filesystem, is on trial for killing his ex-wife, and he’s using geekiness as a defense. Read this Wired piece on the case from last Summer, then read this Washington Post article on the trial from yesterday.
Reiser is relying on geekiness and Asperger’s Syndrome to explain why he “didn’t understand” that the extremely suspicious-looking things he did in the time after Nina Reiser disappeared might look suspicious. Gimme a fucking break. It absolutely disgusts me that valid ways of being (geekiness and Asperger’s) are being used as an excuse for crime, or even for making oneself look guilty of crime.
Neither geeks nor people with AS are generally murderers, and they’re not so naive that they cannot control their anger or cannot see that doing these things makes a person look suspicious.
Fucking idiots, both Reiser and his lawyers.
