Scammer
Banned
The man convicted of hacking Sarah Palin's email will be sentenced Friday in Knoxville, Tennessee.
[video]http://cnn.com/video/?/video/politics/2010/04/23/bts.palin.email.hacker.wate[/video]
The man convicted of hacking former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's e-mail account is asking a federal judge to sentence him to probation. But federal prosecutors are pushing for him to get at least 18 months in prison.
David Kernell's fate will be decided Friday at a sentencing hearing in a federal courtroom in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Kernell was found guilty in April on two counts related to hacking Palin's e-mails two years ago.
At the time, Palin -- the governor of Alaska -- was running as the Republican vice-presidential nominee. Kernell was a student at the University of Tennessee.
Prosecutors said Kernell accessed Palin's e-mail by resetting the password. He then read the contents and made screenshots of the e-mail directory and other personal information.
The information included e-mail addresses and photos of family members and at least one cell phone number of a relative.
The screenshots were posted on a public website.
In court documents, federal prosecutors said Kernell should serve the 18-month prison sentence in part because he sought to "derail" Palin's campaign.
Kernell attorney's argued that there have been similar court cases where people have been sentenced to probation.
What Kernell did, they said, was closer to a prank than a crime.
