14 DAY TRIAL // Hans Reiser, the programmer that created the ReiserFS filesystem, was convicted yesterday of first-degree murder for killing his estranged wife, Nina Reiser. After three days of deliberation, following a trial that lasted six months, the jury from Alameda County, California, has reached a decision. Hans Reiser was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Nina Reiser was last seen alive on September 3, 2006, in Oakland, California. At that time, she was in the middle of divorce from Hans Reiser. Only a small amount of forensic evidence was presented during the trial, like the tiny specks of blood found on a pillar in Hans Reiser's home and on a sleeping bag cover in his car.
Nina Reiser's body was never found, but the prosecutors considered the programmer's behavior and the events in which he was implicated enough evidence to sentence him. After his wife's disappearance, Hans Reiser hosed down the floorboards in his car (it seemed logical for him to do that in order to clean it properly) and took out the passenger's seat from it (he said he needed more space to sleep in his car). He also attempted to elude the police several times.
Hans Reiser's attorney, William Du Bois, tried to invoke the so-called "geek defense" to explain the eccentric behavior of his client. Du Bois explained that although his client acted strange, innocent explanations could be provided for his doings. The attorney also explained that there was no direct evidence to link the programmer to the crime, and Nina Reiser might be living somewhere in Russia, her native country. The jury considered these explanations false, and sentenced Hans Reiser to 25 years in prison.
This is bad news for both Hans Reiser and the Linux community, because the fate of the Reiser4 open source filesystem, the successor of ReiserFS, is now uncertain, despite being developeded by a group of open source programmers.
Could this be the end of the ReiserFS project?