That would be an interesting case but that's not what seems to be argued here. The state is arguing that they have enough evidence that "the presence of child porn on his drives was a 'foregone conclusion.'". It's likely the defendant didn't use forgetting-the-password as a defense because it was obvious via IP traffic and witness testimony that he had regularly and recently used his computer.
The ruling here seems focused on the point of whether the knowledge/use of a password constitutes self-incrimination, which people have a Constitutional right not to engage in. IANAL, but it seems akin to arguing that you have a Fifth Amendment right not to give up a DNA sample.
edit: Looks like I'm wrong, defendant did use forgetfulness as a defense at one point, though that was ultimately not his only reasoning for appeal.
Approximately one week after the Quashal Denial,
Doe and his counsel appeared at the Delaware County Police
Department for the forensic examination of his devices. Doe
produced the Apple iPhone 6 Plus, including the files on the
secret application, in a fully unencrypted state by entering
three separate passwords on the device. The phone contained
adult pornography, a video of Doe’s four-year-old niece in
which she was wearing only her underwear, and
approximately twenty photographs which focused on the
genitals of Doe’s six-year-old niece.
Doe, however, stated
that he could not remember the passwords necessary to
decrypt the hard drives and entered several incorrect
passwords during the forensic examination. The Government
remains unable to view the decrypted content of the hard
drives without his assistance.
However, in the next paragraph, the document refers to a ruling in which the court found that there was enough evidence to show that the suspect "remembered the passwords needed to decrypt the hard drives but chose not to reveal them because of the devices' contents". I imagine the details of that evidence was in the Oct 5., 2015 hearing in which the suspect "neither testified nor called witnesses. He offered no physical or documentary evidence into the record and provided no explanation for his failure to comply with the Decryption order".
> Forensic examination also disclosed that Doe [Rawls] had downloaded thousands of files known by their "hash" values to be child pornography. The files, however, were not on the Mac Pro, but instead had been stored on the encrypted external hard drives. Accordingly, the files themselves could not be accessed.
He was running a Freenet node. Investigators were also running Freenet nodes, which peered with his. The were using a tweaked Freenet client that logs lots of stuff. So they know that chunks of child porn files went to his node. What they arguably don't know is whether he requested them, or merely relayed requests from other peers. But they have experts who will bullshit convincingly enough about that.
Edit: The Freenet Project, in my opinion, has irresponsibly relied on "plausible deniability".
Interesting, didn't think it could be Freenet related, as lists of hashes during synchronisation was stated. If so it could explain why the prosecution want the drive decryped although they on the surface seems to have enough evidence.
But then the foregone conclusion argument could to be slightly disingenuous, depending on exact details which appears to be unknown at the moment?
By running their own Freenet nodes, investigators can create databases of observable chunk hashes and file content. And they can see traffic to peers. So they know that his node handled child porn.
But they can't really know that he was looking at child porn without finding saved files. They may also be interested in communications with other potential suspects.
If it's a foregone conclusion, why don't they charge him under CP laws and be done with it? Looks like it's either not as foregone as they try to present it, or they try to use it to establish a precedent (or probably both) and latch on this case because of the defendant being so unsympathetic.
The self-incrimination clause was motivated by the practice of forced confessions, which were elicited by threats, indefinite detention and torture. You can get a DNA sample with a cotton swab, but it takes much worse to extract information from someone's mind.
It's not only because of the amount of force used. It's also because of the power it gives to the police.
If they had a mental scanner that allowed to get information out of people's brain without keeping them in jail forever or torturing them, it still be a problem - because without controls on it what the police would do is just round up everyone looking suspicious enough, brain-scan them en masse and use all the information gathered. And of course they would claim "if you're a honest man, you don't have a reason to be concerned".
So it's not only about torture & detention, it's about not giving police the power to own any information they'd like to have just because they want it. We have "due process" because police and state power is huge even as it is, without strict controls on it a private citizen has very little chance to resist any abuse and to correct any error.
> IANAL, but it seems akin to arguing that you have a Fifth Amendment right not to give up a DNA sample.
It's not equivalent. The Supreme Court has mentioned in past decisions that combo locks may well count as products of the mind, and so fall under 5th protection, where key safes and compelled DNA gathering do not. See: http://blogs.denverpost.com/crime/2012/01/05/why-criminals-s...
The ruling here seems focused on the point of whether the knowledge/use of a password constitutes self-incrimination, which people have a Constitutional right not to engage in. IANAL, but it seems akin to arguing that you have a Fifth Amendment right not to give up a DNA sample.
edit: Looks like I'm wrong, defendant did use forgetfulness as a defense at one point, though that was ultimately not his only reasoning for appeal.
Look at page 7 of the document here:
https://arstechnica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/rawlsopin...
However, in the next paragraph, the document refers to a ruling in which the court found that there was enough evidence to show that the suspect "remembered the passwords needed to decrypt the hard drives but chose not to reveal them because of the devices' contents". I imagine the details of that evidence was in the Oct 5., 2015 hearing in which the suspect "neither testified nor called witnesses. He offered no physical or documentary evidence into the record and provided no explanation for his failure to comply with the Decryption order".