If not "judicial murder," Jack, what? At least one state governor gave up on executions on the basis that while they continued it was impossible to avoid executing innocent people. A few years ago (this might have changed) I noticed that only two countries in the world admitted executing people for crimes they committed when under the age of 18. The Yemen and the US. Now I see that only two countries in the world admit sentencing people to LWOP for crimes committed below the age of 18. Somalia and the US. Over the last several centuries, which have seen an number of long-term civilising trends, only one country in the world has gone backwards, reintroducing capital punishment after de facto abolishing it for a number of years. Guess which?

Jack's point that Pentagon systems are understandably more insecure than sytems controlling nuclear weapons may be valid. It may also be that whatever McKinnon stumbled into was trivial and harmless and hardly worth protecting. In which case the US reaction (escalated ultimately to C-in-C level!) has been fuelled more by pique than injury.

Bert: no-one is denying a crime was committed. Once extradition is off the agenda McKinnon will be prosecuted in a UK court and will have to take his medicine.