Email Snooping May Set a New Precedent for the Law

While it has long been a crime to willfully open another person’s physical mail, the advent of electronic mail, email, creates a new dynamic for the law to consider.

Leon Walker, a 33 year old man from Michigan, has been charged with a felony for logging into his wife’s email account and reading her email. Walker and his wife were married at the time and shared the same computer, but the email account belonging to his wife (Gmail) required a separate password which belonged to his wife.

While there is not law specific to this exact crime, the prosecution for the case will be trying Walker under the laws that deal with identity theft and other cyber crimes. If he is convicted, Walker could receive up to 5 years in jail for snooping on his wife. His wife, as it turned out, was having an affair and Walker uncovered evidence of this in her emails. The couple is now divorced, and the trial is set for February 7, 2011.