David Kernell’s lawyers contended that the offence was a youthful prank Related stories
A student convicted of hacking into former Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s email account in 2008 has been sentenced to a year in state custody.
David Kernell guessed the answers to Ms Palin’s security questions and reset her password, prosecutors said.
Defence lawyers described the offence as a youthful prank. Kernell was a 20-year-old student at the University of Tennessee when he committed the crime.
The judge recommended his term be served in a halfway house, not prison.
Ms Palin, the 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate, compared the hacking to the Watergate scandal.
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