The Freedom Bulletin

On Wednesday, the “news” and gossip site Gawker.com decided to run an article in which an anonymous woman accused Congressman Christopher Lee (R-NY) of sending her a shirtless picture of himself via Craigslist. As basically the whole world knows, he then resigned within hours. The anonymous woman then gave another flippant and obnoxious interview to Gawker. So to sum up, in addition to taking obvious delight in destroying Rep. Lee’s career, Gawker also thinks it is perfectly appropriate to allow someone to publicly drag a person’s private life through the mud while remaining completely free of scrutiny herself.

But trashing only one high-profile figure’s love life in two days was not enough. On Thursday, Gawker ran the following lovely front page story, this time choosing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as their victim:

“Julian Assange Has at Least Four Love Children” – at least according to two anonymous (of course) sources. This story and the one before it exemplify the distinction between WikiLeaks, which allows anonymous whistleblowers to expose the secrets of powerful governments and corporations, and trashy tabloids, which delight in victimizing individuals.

Admittedly, my opinion of Assange went down a little after reading this article. While my opinion of WikiLeaks as an organization doesn’t change, I don’t know what I think of him as a person now. But I do know what I think about Gawker: it is trashy, mean-spirited, and classless, and the people in charge of it should be ashamed of themselves.

Speaking of Assange, his lawyers gave closing arguments today in his extradition hearing, which you can read more about here. They also criticized comments that the Swedish prime minister made about Assange earlier this week. The judge will make a decision about his extradition on February 24.

As you probably know by now if you haven’t been living under a rock, Craigslist decided to take down its “adult services” section in response to pressure from 17 states’ attorneys general. In the aftermath of Philip Markoff‘s suicide, one of the most vocal critics of the site’s adult services section has been Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley. She also wants to repeal the 1996 Communications Decency Act (CDA), which shields websites from liability for things that third parties post.

In my opinion, Craigslist was not legally or morally obligated to remove its “adult” ads, and the attorneys general are acting like a bunch of paternalistic, sexist bullies.

First of all, the CDA is a good law. In addition to protecting Craigslist from liability for thinly-veiled prostitution ads, the CDA also protects sites like Youtube from being sued when people post copyright-infringing videos, and forums from being sued for users’ defamatory comments. This principle just makes sense. People are responsible for their own actions, so they should be held responsible for all of and only what they post themselves. For large, popular websites, it is unreasonable to expect administrators to be able to monitor everything that gets posted.

Additionally, the attitude of Coakley and the other attorneys general is sexist and insulting. In a joint letter, they write about the “women and children who will continue to be victimized.” Although probably not common, it’s certainly possible for men to be forced into prostitution, or even for women to be the perpetrators.

Furthermore, the attorneys general fail to distinguish between prostitution, an activity that is illegal but which some people choose to participate in, and human trafficking, which is when people are forced into prostitution. Connecticut AG Richard Blumenthal, for example, said: “Prostitution is not a victimless crime. Human trafficking results in tragedies to children and others.” I don’t necessarily think prostitution should be legal, but everyone should recognize that there is a difference between choosing to do something and being forced to do it. Blumenthal seems unable to tell the difference.

Finally, the bullying by the attorneys general makes Craigslist, and by extension the Internet, worse. I don’t regularly use Craigslist, but it has a certain appeal that comes from its simplicity, freedom, and anonymity. In the age of cookies, behavioral tracking, and intrusive personalization, it is great that a site exists where people can simply post almost anything they want with little or no moderation. Last year, in response to pressure from 39 attorneys general, Craigslist began to require personally-identifying information for adult services ads. Although this might make the site safer, it detracts from the anarchy that makes Craigslist what it is.

In short, Craigslist is not doing anything wrong by merely failing to remove illegal ads that third parties post. In the vast majority of cases, people who post ads or respond to them do so because they have considered the risks involved and have decided that the benefits are worth it. To take away an option from people merely because it is dangerous insults them by implying that they cannot be trusted to make their own decisions, and harms them by denying them the ability to do something that they want to do. Although a small number of people are forced into prostitution against their will, and the existence of Craigslist might make their victimization slightly easier, not all prostitution involves force, and not all adult services ads involve prostitution. It is never okay to punish many people for the actions of a few.

In the eloquent words of the Cato Institute’s Jim Harper: “The cost to free speech in the AGs’ badgering of Craigslist vastly outweighs the infinitesimal crime-prevention benefit.”

I wish our attorneys general would stop bullying harmless websites like Craigslist, and start standing up for people’s liberty against oppressive federal laws like, say, the Durham-Humphrey Amendment or the health care non-reform law.

Today John Salsberg, lawyer for accused Craigslist killer Philip Markoff, asked to question prosecutors about media reports that may have tainted the grand jury that indicted Markoff last week. Judge Frank Gaziano took the motion under advisement.

In the motion, the defense asks the Suffolk District Attorney’s Office to produce a written report answering 9 questions. The questions include whether law enforcement officials or members of the prosecution team leaked information about the grand jury proceedings to the media, whether they made any effort to prevent grand jurors from being exposed to media reports, and why the Assistant District Attorney in the case decided to announce at Markoff’s arraignment that a grand jury was conducting a (supposedly secret) investigation.

Also at today’s hearing, Judge Gaziano allowed a motion to preserve evidence, denied a defense motion to impound documents in the case, and allowed without prejudice a defense motion to prevent prosecutors from filing a summary of the case against Markoff. (Thanks to Jake Wark from the Suffolk DA’s office for this info!)

I wasn’t able to make the hearing today, so here are links to some media reports:

• PDF of the motion – Boston Herald
• Philip Markoff attorney eyes leaks – Boston Herald
• Judge in Craigslist case considers request for prosecution disclosure – Boston Globe
• Accused ‘Craigslist killer’ won’t see former fiancee for ‘long period of time’ - ABC

Alleged Craigslist killer Philip Markoff was arraigned this morning in Suffolk Superior Court. He is charged with first-degree murder, armed robbery, attempted armed robbery, 2 counts of armed kidnapping, and 2 counts of illegal possession of a firearm, and he pleaded not guilty to all of them.

I made my way to the 7th floor at about 8:00. From about 9:00 to 11:15 hearings and arraignments took place for various other cases. Markoff’s mother, father, brother, and sister-in-law were present, as were about 7 or 8 relatives and friends of Julissa Brisman, the woman Markoff is accused of murdering.

When it was finally time for him to be arraigned, Markoff entered the courtroom through a side door at about 11:15. I could hear his chains clinking before he came through the door. He was wearing a white shirt with blue stripes, and his blond hair was shorter than at his last court appearance. He stood in the dock and looked toward the judge, never showing any emotion or looking at his family.

When Clerk Magistrate Gary Wilson asked Markoff how he pled to the murder charge, he answered “not guilty” in a clear, confident voice. He waived the right to a formal reading of the charges and also pled not guilty to the other six charges.

Prosecutor Edmond Zabin asked that Markoff be held without bail and summed up the crimes of which he is accused. Zabin described the crimes as three violent assaults against three female victims – a murder and a robbery in Boston and an attempted robbery in Rhode Island. He said that Markoff used a different Tracfone (which does not require identifying information to sign up) to contact each victim after replying to their ads in the “erotic services” section of Craigslist. This February, when his fiancee, Megan McAllister, was out of town, he allegedly went to Mason, New Hampshire, where he purchased a 9mm semiautomatic handgun made by Springfield Armory, using the driver’s license of a New York man named Andrew Miller.

On April 9 he allegedly set up an appointment through Craigslist with an escort named Patricia Leffler at the Westin hotel in Boston. According to Zabin, he forced her to the floor at gunpoint, tied her hands with flex-cuff restraints, and, wearing leather gloves, took her money and some personal belongings. He then removed the gloves and duct-taped her mouth. His fingerprints were found on the cuffs and duct tape.

At this point, defense attorney John Salsberg objected, arguing that listing the alleged crimes in such detail served no purpose, as he was not planning to argue for bail, and would taint the potential jury pool. Wilson dismissed the defense objection, saying that stopping Zabin would be unprecedented.

Zabin continued, saying that Markoff met Brisman at the Copley Marriot on April 14 after answering her Craigslist ad for massages. Shortly after he got to her room on the 20th floor, he allegedly hit her in the head with his gun with severe but not life-threatening force and then shot her three times in the upper torso. She was found with a flex-cuff on one wrist and bruising on the other and was pronounced dead shortly thereafter. The cause of death was the gunshot wounds.

Surveillance footage from both hotels shows that the suspect wore similar clothing on both the 10th and the 14th. When police searched Markoff’s apartment at the High Point complex in Quincy, they found a gun in a hollowed-out copy of Gray’s Anatomy, spare ammunition and magazines, flex-cuffs, Tracfones, and laptop computers, one of which contained remnants of an email sent in reply to Brisman’s Craigslist ad. Markoff had Andrew Miller’s driver’s license on him at the time of his arrest on April 20, when he was driving to Foxwoods with his fiancee, and his fingerprints were found on the paperwork that accompanied the gun purchase.

Zabin asked that Markoff be held without bail “given the brutal nature of these crimes…and the strength of the evidence.” Salsberg did not argue otherwise, so Wilson ordered Markoff held without bail.

Wilson called this a “track C” homicide case and set the trial date about a year from now, on June 1st, 2010.

There will be a hearing tomorrow on some defense motions before Judge Frank Gaziano (the same judge as in the Rockefeller case!) at 2:00, which I unfortunately won’t be able to attend. Markoff has waived his right to be present tomorrow, which means he probably won’t be there either. I’ll try to make an update about that if anything of interest happens.

Here’s a list (subject to change) of important dates coming up in this case:

• June 23, 2009 at 2:00 – hearing on defense motions
• December 10, 2009 – hearing
• May 11, 2010 – final pretrial hearing
• June 1, 2010 – trial begins

Edit (6/23): There’s also a hearing scheduled for August 11 of this year.

Philip Markoff, the alleged “Craigslist killer,” was indicted on Thursday by a grand jury. The indictment, which was just made public today, includes charges of murder, attempted armed robbery, armed robbery, 2 counts of armed kidnapping, and 2 counts of illegal possession of a firearm.

Markoff, of course, is the BU medical student who allegedly murdered a masseuse named Julissa Brisman in an apparent robbery attempt and allegedly tied up and robbed another woman. Both incidents took place this April in Boston hotels after Markoff allegedly responded to the women’s “erotic services” ads on Craigslist.

A few new details came out in today’s press release from the Suffolk County D.A.’s office:

• Markoff allegedly called the victims using two different Tracfones, which do not require users to provide identifying information.
• He allegedly hit Brisman on the head several times with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun, fracturing her skull.
• The surviving victim identified Markoff in a photo line-up after Boston Police obtained his college ID photo from the BU Police Department.
• Four pairs of women’s underwear (not 12 as some news reports have said) were found in his Quincy apartment inside his box spring. There were also several Tracfones and laptops in the apartment.

With this indictment, Markoff’s case moves from Boston Municipal Court to Suffolk Superior Court. He will be arraigned tomorrow morning. I’ll be there and will blog back with all the details tomorrow night.

In the wake of the Philip Markoff case and other alleged crimes involving Craigslist, several attorneys general from around the country are trying to get the classified-ad site to shut down its erotic services section and even threatening it with prosecution.

I think it’s wrong to hold a website responsible for content that third parties post, and the law seems to agree with me. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act shields website owners and operators from being legally responsible for comments and posts made by their users. Section 230 has been used successfully as a defense in cases involving sex crimes, child pornography, defamation, breach of contract, intentional nuisance, and emotional distress, according to the EFF. According to Section 230, individuals are responsible for what they post online, not the websites that host or facilitate their content. This is true even if website owners know about the content or are not doing everything that they possibly could do to stop it or take it down. By requiring credit card and phone numbers to post erotic ads and by enabling users to flag potentially illegal content, Craigslist is already doing more than it is legally required to do.

If someone chooses to place erotic ads or respond to them, then that’s their decision, and they should be held responsible for any illegal acts that they commit. Just as news sites aren’t sued for libellous comments posted by readers, Craigslist shouldn’t be punished for the decisions of its users.

See also:

• EFF’s Archive of Section 230 Cases
• AGs v. Craigslist: Putting the Bully Back Into Bully Pulpit - Matt Zimmerman, EFF
• Craigslist not complicit in masseuse’s murder – Wendy Murphy, Boston Herald

Philip Markoff, better known as the alleged Craigslist killer, was arraigned in Boston Municipal Court today, and I decided to attend. In case you haven’t heard of this case, Markoff is a 22-year-old (or 23-year-old, depending on the source) Boston University medical student who is accused of murdering Julissa Brisman, a masseuse and aspiring actress, at the Marriott Copley Place in an attempted robbery. He is also accused of robbing another woman at the Westin Copley Place. Both women advertised massage/erotic services on Craigslist, which is how they allegedly came into contact with Markoff.  Surveillance photos of the suspect at both hotels were released by the Boston Police, and yesterday Markoff was taken into custody and his identity was disclosed.

I got to Courtroom 10, on the fifth floor of the building, at 9:00 this morning, but before Markoff’s arraignment there were about a dozen hearings for various defendants charged with relatively minor crimes such as driving with an expired license, larceny, possession of a firearm without a license, drunk driving, et cetera. On a side note, I saw defense lawyer Stephen Hrones, who initially represented Clark Rockefeller, in court today, representing a man charged with larceny.

At a little before 12:30, Markoff was finally brought into the courtroom through a side door. He has blond hair and was wearing a blue button-down shirt and khaki pants. By that time the room was absolutely packed with reporters and other observers. There was relatively little seating, so many people had to stand, filling basically every possible space.

Markoff was charged with kidnapping and armed robbery for the incident that took place at the Westin on April 10, and murder for the killing of Brisman on April 14. He was also charged with possession of a firearm without a license. The prosecutor, Jennifer Hickman, asked that he be held without bail and then described the details of the crimes Markoff is charged with. She mentioned that Brisman was shot three times and suffered blunt force trauma to her head, and said that Markoff bound the other woman’s wrists with plastic ties, tied her to the hotel room door, pointed a gun at her, and stole over $800. Last night, said Hickman, the police executed a search warrant on Markoff’s Quincy home, where they found a gun and ammunition.

Markoff’s lawyer, John Salsberg, made a motion to preserve evidence and requested that the bail decision be made without prejudice. Judge Paul Leary agreed to both requests, and then ordered Markoff to be held without bail for the murder charge and set bail at $250,000 for the kidnapping and armed robbery, which doesn’t really matter since he is held without bail for the murder charge anyway.

According to news reports, a procedural plea of not guilty was entered for Markoff. I don’t believe any plea was entered aloud during the arraignment, so this must have been done either before or after.

A grand jury is currently investigating the case, and a hearing is set for May 21.

For more info on the Craigslist killer case, check out these articles:

• Weapons Found in Home of Boston Murder Suspect – New York Times
• Police Say Accused Craigslist Killer Owed Gambling Debts – ABC
• Alleged “Craigslist killer” was heading to Foxwoods with fiancee - Boston Globe
• Craigslist victim died of gunshot to the heart – Boston Herald
• Med student held without bail in possible Craigslist killing – CNN
• Boston University Medical Student Charged in Craigslist Killing Held Without Bail – Fox News
• Craigslist murder suspect held without bail – MSNBC