I worked with Hans and his team a few years back on an experimental ReiserFS-based filesystem for Squid (still the fastest Squid ever, as far as I know), and find the whole thing difficult to believe. He very likely suffers from Aspergers ("suffers" in this case, since it seems to have led to his conviction due to his insistence on taking the stand and deep misunderstanding of human nature and how his behavior would appear to others...it seems to be a beneficial condition for some folks, ordinarily, at least with regard to productivity, but when it comes to a jury they aren't likely to be your peers), or a similar condition, and I always found his famously obstinate behavior more amusing than threatening.<p>I, of course, have no idea if he committed the crime, but I find his bizarre explanations far more believable than the jury. He really is just that kind of person...a bit paranoid, extremely analytical, and significantly smarter than the vast majority of people. This is true even among extremely smart folks, like those on the Linux kernel mailing list, he's probably among the smartest in the conversation. But he's also lacking in many social skills to the point that his involvement in a discussion usually hurts more than helps--reading his numerous arguments on the LKML is like seeing a warm up for his bizarre performance on the stand.<p>So, one could make the case that Hans' feeling of superiority, which might be hard to avoid for someone as smart as he is, and his paranoia combined to produce this very result. Perhaps he figured he'd get away with it, because he's so much smarter than everyone else. And perhaps his paranoia convinced him that Nina had plans to steal away with his children and he'd never see them again (there is some evidence that this was actually her plan). Since the average American has a rather deeply ingrained mistrust of really smart people, his particularly ornery and superior attitude certainly didn't help him.<p>I genuinely like Hans, and think very highly of him as a developer...so I'm not going to spend a lot of time dwelling on the uncomfortable thoughts of whether he committed the crime or not. I'll just hope that if he did, he gets some help for his mental illness while imprisoned (I'm assuming that if he did it, it's due to his paranoia being far worse than is apparent in his public persona), and that he's able to accept responsibility for the act. And, if he didn't do it, I hope that something comes out that exonerates him before he's too old to enjoy a return to freedom.