Youth convicted for sneaking into Palin's e-mail

A 22-year-old youth has been convicted by a US court for illegally accessing the e-mail account of Sarah Palin, former Alaska Governor and running mate of John McCain who was the Republican Presidential candidate in 2008, and faces up to 20 years in prison.

After a week-long trial, a federal jury in Tennessee found David C Kernell guilty of one count of misdemeanour -- unauthorised access to obtain information from a computer and one count of obstruction of justice.

However, the jury found him not guilty of wire fraud. It also could not reach a verdict on the identity theft charge for which the judge declared a mistrial, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Kernell faces a maximum of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine for unauthorised access and 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for obstruction of justice.

According to evidence presented at trial, Kernell obtained unauthorised access to Palin's personal e-mail account by resetting its password.

Evidence showed that after answering a series of security questions that allowed him to reset the password and gain access to the e-mail account, Kernell read the contents of the account and made screenshots of the e-mail directory, e-mail content and other personal information.

He then posted screenshots of the e-mails and other personal information to a public website.

Kernell also posted the new e-mail account password that he had created, thus providing access to the account by others, the Justice Department said.

Evidence at trial showed that Kernell became aware of a possible FBI investigation on September 16, 2008, following the illegal entry into the e-mail account.

The evidence further showed that Kernell began to delete records and documents with the intent to impede an anticipated FBI investigation, it statement said.