notabot

I don't think the difference between him physically triggering the wipe and him giving them the code that triggered the wipe would have much effect from a legal point of view. In both cases he deliberately took an action he knew would lead to the destruction of the data. I think his defense's approach of challenging the legality of the stop is probably much safer.

I suspect that the prosecution would like to set precedent that you can't claim to be under duress when a lawful authority is performing a search, so the defence staying away from that area is probably a good idea.

Pretty much. A compketely blank phone is a clear sign that it's wiped, and why would you do that, unless you have sonething to hide, hmm? A phone with a couple of weeks of boring use, maybe a few photos of nice sunsets, a few messages, a take-out ordering app, some boring history in the web browser, and maybe a login to a social media account that follows some celebs and an old school friends or two who don't seem to post any more, just says you got a new phone a while back and you're fairly boring.

Obviously, if they actually have something on you, or they want to pin something on you, those precautions won't actually help much.

US border patrol are considered a lawful authority as they are granted their powers by the federal government and are federal law enforcement officers. They are charged with enforcing US laws, including immigration laws, at the border and in any US state or territory.

From their point of view, they are well within their rights to seize and search his phone, and he interfered with their duties by destroying the data on the phone. Whether that should be the case is a different matter.

The free surface effect, a mechanism through which things moving on a boat cause the spontaneous generation of so many partial differential equations that your ship decides it’ll be easier just to sink itself

Curses! Foiled by surprise differential equations again!

Absolutely, my initial comment was in relation to the duress code only, hus defence has some seemingly solid points tgat I hope will get the case tossed.

I admit, I didn't check, but if he was stopped on returning, then yes, he must be allowed in. He'd then be arrested.

The charge wasn't destruction of evidence, but destruction of property, probably for exactly the reason you mention. He could certainly have arguwd with the agent, but he certainly wouldn't be getting on the flight if he did, and I suspect he'd be lucky to walk out of the airport without being arrested. As I said in another comment, this isn't something you can beat at the point of application, it needs to be cut off at the root.

My understanding is that, for the purposes of inspections during border crossings, that is not the case. Also, remember that the border agent can decide, for pretty nuch any reason, that you're not getting on the flight, and, I'm sure, can add a note to your record to suggest to agents on other flights that they stop you too.

Whilst, yes, he probably did feel under duress, he had a choice to make; hand over the phone, or wipe it and face the repercussions from doing so. Bear in mind, that from the agent's point of view, they had the lawful right to search his phone, so arguing duress will be tricky at best. In his position, I'd like to think I was comfortable handing over the phone because I'd wiped it before travelling.

Having said all that, yes, I agree that his defense has some strong arguments. However, if they decide to make an exame of him, those arguments wont do him much good.

As far as I understand, from their point of view they have the lawful right to seize and inspect your phone. You could certainly refuse to hand it over, but that would certainly lead to incarceration or worse, with no positive outcome for you or society. It's one of those things that you're bot going to beat at the point of application, vut needs to be cut off at the root.

That wouldn't avoid the destruction of property charge, just (possibly) make it harder to notice. It sounds like it was the screen flashing and the phone restarting, which is probably necessary for a full wipe, that tipped them off.

To be fair, a duress pin is definitely a good thing to have if you're being mugged, but using it to deliberately destroy data when it's been seized by a lawful authority is guaranteed to land you in serious trouble pretty much anywhere. Whether the border agents were, in fact, a lawful authority, and whether they had a lawful reason to seize his phone are very different questions.

The much more sensible approach is to either have a separate phobe for travelling, that has nothing you care about on it, or wipe your phone before you travel, and spend a little time building up an innocuous history on it, without putting anything you care about on it. Anything you absolutely must have access to while you're away can be stored, encrypted, online, and you can remember the details to retrieve it.