Conviction Of Man Who Hacked Into Celebrities' iPads Overturned Because He Was Tried In Wrong State

A U.S. court of appeals struck down the conviction of a man who hacked into the iPads of thousands of individuals, including celebrities, mayors and Hollywood producers, Reuters reported.

Andrew Auernheimer, 28, is to be released after the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that his conviction and the entire case, which occurred in New Jersey in 2012, took place in the wrong state.

"The court merely determined that the Department of Justice brought this case in the wrong state, and we are reviewing our options," said Matthew Reilly, spokesman for New Jersey-based U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman, who prosecuted Auernheimer, according to Reuters.

Auernheimer, from Arkansas, was sentenced to 41 months in prison for stealing the personal information of some 120,000 users of Apple's iPad back in 2010. He used an "account slurper" to access data from AT&T servers and shared them with a reporter for Gawker, who then published a story listing several high profile people who had their information compromised.

Those affected included Diane Sawyer of ABC News, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Hollywood movie producer Harvey Weinstein, Reuters reported.

Auernheimer was tried and convicted in Newark New Jersey on charges of conspiracy to violate the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and identity theft. But the appeals court agreed that he was not in New Jersey, but over 1,000 miles away in Fayetteville, Arkansas, when he accessed the iPad accounts.

"Venue in criminal cases is more than a technicality; it involves matters that touch closely the fair administration of criminal justice and public confidence in it," Circuit Judge Michael Chagares wrote, according to Reuters. "Cybercrimes do not happen in some metaphysical location that justifies disregarding constitutional limits on venue."

Prosecutors claimed they had a right to file the case in New Jersey because over 4,500 state residents were affected by the defendant's crime.

The date for Auernheimer's release is not yet known. The court did not issue a ruling on Auernheimer's other claim that since AT&T did not have sufficient email protections in place, the emails were therefore accessible in a public space.