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First spam conviction overturned
Tech terms and spam laws confuse jurors

By Jo Best

Published: Thursday 03 March 2005

One of the first felony spam convictions in the US has been overturned - and the judge thought jurors in the case were bamboozled by technological terms.

Jessica DeGroot was jailed along with her brother, Jeremy Jaynes, earlier this year after being convicted of spamming offences. Judge Thomas D. Horne ruled that there was no "rational basis" for DeGroot's conviction and added that the anti-spam law used to convict the pair had perplexed the jurors.

He said the jurors may have got "lost" in the law, according to reports.

DeGroot had been sentenced to pay $7,500 after the pair were found guilty of sending thousands emails to AOL addresses in 2003. Her brother was jailed for nine years for masterminding the spam operation.