Man sentenced to 6 months in prison for not giving his iphone password

Although the headline sounds like science fiction it is something that has happened recently in the United States. First of all, to say that in the United States a person accused of a crime is obliged to give his password (from the computer or mobile) to the police.

Man sentenced to 6 months in prison for not giving his iPhone password

This past week in a Florida court this happened. Christopher Wheeler, accused of child abuse, has been sentenced to 6 months in prison for not having given the correct PIN to unlock his iPhone.

6 months in prison for a PIN

The defendant was arrested for allegedly hitting his daughter. When the police asked for his iPhone PIN, he gave it to him. Apparently the PIN entered by the agents was not correct, so they could not access the device. The defendant insists that the PIN provided is correct, but the judge does not believe him. For this reason, since he considers that he is obstructing the investigation, he is sentenced to 6 months in prison.

This is an unusual measure, although cases of this type are beginning to emerge in the United States. There are judges who believe that the defendant has forgotten the PIN, and they do not take additional measures. Therefore, this 6-month sentence is surprising.

Therefore, all this is still in very difficult terrain. It is also not known whether the accused will serve this sentence or not. A resolution is expected from the Supreme Court in this matter, to be able to determine if the sentence issued by this judge is valid or not. What do you think of this news? Do you think it should be possible to send to jail for not giving the PIN?