The Supreme Court decided on Dec. 13 to hear the case of an Alabama man whose trade secrets-theft conviction in Florida for stealing proprietary fishing information from a Florida-based website was vacated because his trial took place in the wrong state.
Having the conviction vacated wasn’t enough for software engineer Timothy S. Smith of Mobile, Alabama, because he doesn’t consider himself guilty of a crime. Whatever Smith did, it wasn’t done in Florida, where he was convicted. Smith wanted to be acquitted, that is, legally declared not guilty, but vacating doesn’t go far enough as it only erases the conviction from court records.
