David Kernell, a former University of Tennessee student, has been found guilty of two charges, including obstruction of justice, relating to his successful hacking attempt of then presidential nominee John McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin’s e-mail account. The leak caused quite a stur after it was discovered that Palin, the former governor of Alaska, was found to have exchanged e-mails related to government business through the account provided by Yahoo. The young adult was initially facing four charges, one of which he was found to be not guilty, the other pending the outcome of a retrial. Much of the jury’s decision rested on the fact that Kernell hacked into the account with the intent of tarnishing Palin’s reputation. After gaining access into the account, Kernell distributed the login credentials online and even boasted of the feat. This obviously got him much more than he initially bargained for.

During the sentencing phase, Kernell may face a few decades worth of jail time at the worst. This is not something that most twenty year olds would ever imagine having to grapple with. Most of us would agree that Kernell isn’t particularly deserving of a very lengthy sentence. Sure, he does deserve to get punishment for what he did, but in the whole scheme of things it would be a waste to lock him up for ten or more years. There are bigger fish for us to go after, like those who contributed to the economic meltdown back in 2008.