Jeremy Jaynes

Jeremy Jaynes (born 1974) was a prolific e-mail spammer, broadcasting junk e-mail from his home in North Carolina, United States. He became the first person in the world to be convicted of "felony spam," i.e., convicted of a felony for sending spam without allegation of any accompanying illegal conduct such as theft, fraud, trespass, defamation, or obscenity. His conviction was later overturned.

Under a variety of aliases, [http://www.spamhaus.org/rokso/listing.lasso?-op=cn&spammer=Gaven%20Stubberfield] , Jaynes was accused of using T1 internet connections to send hundreds of thousands of e-mails per day, using e-mail lists later reported stolen from AOL and eBay, amongst others. Spamhaus, a directory of junk e-mailers, estimated that he was the eighth most prolific spammer in the world for the period in question. [http://www.spamhaus.org/news.lasso?article=155]

Jaynes used different identities and front businesses for different types of spam, one of which being "Gaven Stubberfield." One of his corporations, "National Wealth Builders", was mentioned in the promotion of various get-rich-quick schemes.

Jeremy Jaynes attended High School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His father was a professor of genetic engineering at Louisiana State University. He was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Prosecution and Conviction

Along with his sister Jessica DeGroot, whose name appeared on one of the credit cards used in purchasing some of Jaynes' domain names, Jaynes was convicted in November 2004 of sending bulk, unsolicited e-mail with forged headers in violation of Virginia's anti-spam statute. Although he was a resident of North Carolina, he was convicted in Leesburg, Virginia, as he had used servers located in Virginia. Among the witnesses for the prosecution was John Levine, author of "The Internet For Dummies". [http://www.johnlevine.com/about.phtml]

Jaynes was sentenced to nine years in State prison, while his sister was fined $7,500. A third defendant, Richard Rutkowski, was acquitted. The trial judge, Thomas D. Horne, later vacated DeGroot's conviction but affirmed Jaynes' conviction.

During the trial it was revealed that Jaynes had delivered physical junk mail during the 1990s. His e-mail outfit primarily advertised a variety of "work at home" schemes. Of the hundreds of thousands of e-mails he broadcast per day, only an estimated 10-17,000 replied; but with orders of $39.95 per customer, Jaynes arguably earned millions of dollars, [http://www.spamfo.co.uk/component/option,com_content/task,view/id,170/Itemid,2/] , against line rental of $50,000 per month.

Although the prosecution had argued for a sentence of 15 years in jail, the jury decided on nine years. Judge Horne imposed this sentence in April 2005. [http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=653257] However, the judge postponed the sentence pending Jaynes' appeal of his conviction. Jaynes' defense lawyer, David Oblon, had argued to Judge Horne that the sentence is an unconstitutional infringement of free speech; conversely, Assistant Attorney General Russell McGuire, who prosecuted the case, argued that a lengthy sentence would serve as a deterrent. On appeal, Jaynes remained under house arrest on a $1 million bond. In an ironic twist Oblon's law partner, Delegate Dave Albo, voted for the final legislation under which Jaynes was prosecuted. [ [http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?031+vot+HV1854+HB2290] ]

For his appeal, Jaynes hired Thomas M. Wolf of the law firm of LeClairRyan. [ [http://www.leclairryan.com/thomas-m-wolf/ Wolf's profile at LeClairRyan] ] Wolf argued that Virginia's anti-spam statute violates the U.S. Constitution on two grounds. Because there is no way to direct the geographic path of email, and the Virginia statute applies to all email that passes through a computer or server in Virginia, Wolf asserted that the statute effectively applies to the whole world in violation of the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, which reserves regulation of interstate commerce to the federal government. Wolf also argued that the statute violates the First Amendment right to communicate political and religious ideas anonymously. Since the problem with spam is commercial email and the statute applies even to non-commercial email, it is overbroad. On 2006-09-05, the Court of Appeals of Virginia rejected these arguments and upheld Jaynes' conviction. Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell, promptly petitioned the trial court to revoke Jaynes' bond and send him to prison, but Judge Horne denied the motion. [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/05/AR2006090501166.html?nav=rss_technology/washtech Anti-Spam Conviction Is Upheld] ]

On 2007-09-12, the Supreme Court of Virginia heard the case. Rejecting Wolf's arguments, and holding that Jaynes did not have standing to raise a First Amendment defense since his own conduct could legally be prohibited, the court upheld his conviction on a 4-3 vote on 2008-02-29 [ [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080229/ap_on_hi_te/anti_spam_law_2 Prolific spammer's conviction upheld] ]

Jaynes' lawyers petitioned the Virginia Supreme Court for rehearing, arguing that the court had erred in denying Jaynes standing to challenge the statute under the First Amendment. Although such petitions are routinely denied, the court granted this one, and the case was reargued in June 2008. On 2008-09-12 the court unanimously reversed its earlier decision. The court held that the anti-spam statute used to convict Jaynes was::"...unconstitutionally overbroad on its face because it prohibits the anonymous transmission of all unsolicited bulk e-mails including those containing political, religious or other speech protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Accordingly, we will reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals and vacate Jaynes’ convictions of violations of Code § 18.2-152.3:1." [ [http://www.courts.state.va.us/opinions/opnscvwp/1062388.pdf] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.spamhaus.org/rokso/evidence.lasso?rokso_id=ROK2928 Police mugshot] (accept cookie terms, then select this link again)
* [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6492244/ MSNBC's report]
* [http://www.spamhaus.org/news.lasso?article=155 An article on Spamhaus]
* [http://news.com.com/2100-1028-5120673.html An news story from CNET dated December 2003, on Jaynes' indictment]
* [http://www.mugshots.com/Criminal/Computer/Jeremy+Jaynes.htm Mugshots of Jaynes]
* [http://www.rustymcguire.com/About%20Rusty%20McGuire.htm Assistant Attorney General Russell McGuire]
*LeClairRyan [http://www.leclairryan.com]

ee also

*List of spammers