MemeMachineGo!

There’s a local Bay Area murder case that has been getting a lot of press in the open source community, as the defendant is a well known open source developer. Hans Reiser, the creator of ReiserFS, is accused of killing his wife, Nina Reiser. They had been involved in a contentious divorce; she’s been missing since September 3rd. I was struck by the prosecutor’s interpretation of this police testimony:

Officer Gino Guerrero said Hans Reiser engaged in a lengthy cat-and-mouse game with surveillance officers who were trailing him on the evening of Sept. 18, 15 days after Nina Reiser was last seen alive. During a break in Wednesday’s hearing, prosecutor Greg Dolge said Hans Reiser was “avoiding police at all costs” and his behavior is “evidence of a guilty conscience.” […]

Guerrero said officers trailed Hans Reiser, both by car and by airplane, after he left family court at 600 Washington St. in Oakland, which is in the same block as an Oakland police station, late in the afternoon of Sept. 18. According to a probable cause statement in the case, Hans Reiser and a male friend “appeared to be conducting counter surveillance” to avoid police by driving at varying speeds, turning down small quiet residential streets and making abrupt stops.

Guerrero said Hans Reiser and his friend eventually had dinner at Fonda restaurant on Solano Avenue in Albany and afterward the friend, who was driving a silver BMW, dropped Hans Reiser at the corner of San Pablo and Ashby avenues in Berkeley. Guerrero said Hans Reiser walked around the area furtively, stopping occasionally to look in all directions, and eventually got into a 1988 Honda CRX that was parked on Acton Street near Carleton Street. Guerrero said police then followed Hans Reiser as he drove the car to 2425 Monterey Road in Oakland.

So if you’re being followed by the police, doing anything other than cheerfully making it convenient for them is, of itself, evidence of guilt?