The LA Times has a story about a Japanese man who has been wanted on charges of murder for over 25 years, who was finally arrested thanks to him tipping off authorities on his blog that he would be traveling to the US territory of Saipan . Apparently, a few years back he set up a blog, and US police have been monitoring it to see if he would do something so silly as to mention the fact that he’d be traveling to a US territory — which he actually did. From what I read in the article , not only was the case overturned, he truly believes he’s innocent (or he’s trying to hid it really well). We apparently consented to let the Japanese try him rather than doing it ourselves, which happens occasionally (and it seems reasonable, as it was only Japanese nationals involved) That didn’t work out so well. Even if they removed the double-jeopardy provision, common sense would say that it should only apply to cases after the law was put into place. The way things are these days, you should probably update your PSA to include “talking with an American about your travel plans on the telephone” and “e-mailing your travel plans via an American ISP”. read more

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