Hans Reiser

Hans Thomas Reiser
Status	Awaiting sentencing
Occupation	Software developer: developer of ReiserFS
Spouse	Nina Reiser (murdered in 2006)
Children	2
Parent(s)	Ramon Reiser (father) Beverly Palmer (mother)
Conviction(s)	First degree murder

Hans Thomas Reiser (born December 19, 1963) is an American computer programmer and convicted murderer. Reiser's wife, Nina Reiser, disappeared in 2006 and in 2008 Reiser was convicted of her first degree murder, and confessed to the murder prior to his sentencing.

Before Nina Reiser's death, Reiser was best known as a computer programmer. He was the lead developer of the ReiserFS journaling file system, included in the Linux kernel, as well as its intended successor Reiser4. He founded a company, Namesys, to develop these filesystems.

Childhood, education and early career

Hans Reiser was born to Ramon Reiser and Beverly Palmer on December 19, 1963. He grew up in California and dropped out of his junior high school before he was 14, citing disagreements with the conventional schooling system. He was accepted at the University of California, Berkeley at the age of 15, which he attended off and on until he received a BA in Systematizing (an individualized major dealing with physics, math and related topics) in 1992, at the age of 28. Reiser was also one of the founding members of the Open Computing Facility at UC Berkeley. Though preferring higher education, Reiser chose not to pursue a Ph.D., citing the same reasons he had dropped out of junior high school. He was therefore unable to pursue a further career in academia and worked part to full time in the computer field while founding and building the California-based international software company Namesys Inc. Prior to founding Namesys, Reiser held positions at Synopsys, IBM Research, Premos and ARDC.

Namesys and ReiserFS

Main articles: Namesys, ReiserFS and Reiser4

Reiser and his company Namesys developed the journaled computer file systems ReiserFS and Reiser4. ReiserFS has been available in the Linux operating system since version 2.4.1 and has at times been the default filesystem on several Linux distributions including, until 2006, Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise.

Following Reiser's 2006 arrest on suspicion of murder, a number of people in the free software community expressed concern over the future of Reiser's filesystem (ReiserFS). However after his conviction, Jonathan Corbet, editor of LWN.net, argued that the immaturity of the reiser4 feature set and Reiser's extensive combative relationship with the community meant that the filesystem's future had been limited in any event. The employees of Namesys have said that they will continue to work and that Reiser's arrest doesn't slow down the software development in the immediate future. They confirmed that if the case expands over a longer time, they will seek solutions to ensure the long-term future of Namesys. In order to afford increasing legal fees, it was announced on December 21, 2006 that Hans Reiser was going to sell his company. As of 2008, Namesys has not been sold.

Marriage to Nina Reiser

In 1999, while working in Russia, Hans Reiser selected from a mail-order bride catalogue, and subsequently married, Nina Sharanova (Нина Шаранова), a Russian-born and trained obstetrician and gynecologist who was studying to become an American licensed OB/GYN. They had two children.

The Reisers separated in May 2004. Nina Reiser filed for divorce three months later, citing irreconcilable differences and saying that their children “hardly know their father” because he was out of the country on business for most of the year, according to court records, and was granted sole legal custody of the children and shared physical custody of them with her husband. The divorce was never finalized. Nina Reiser obtained a temporary restraining order against Hans in December 2004 after he allegedly pushed her, at the height of the divorce proceedings. She dropped the temporary restraining order in late 2005 because the heat of the divorce had chilled over time. In exchange, Hans Reiser agreed to be bound by a one year civil restraining order which prohibited him from “contacting, harassing or disturbing the peace” of Nina Reiser at her home or place of work and ordered him to stay at least 100 yards (91 m) away from her. In May, Nina Reiser alleged in court filings that her husband had failed to pay 50 percent medical expenses and childcare expenses as ordered by a judge.

Nina Reiser's disappearance

Nina Reiser was reported missing on September 5, 2006. She had last been seen on September 3, when she dropped the couple’s two children off with Hans, at his mother's house where he was living at the time. She also failed to meet her best friend at her house later that evening.

Nina Reiser's 2001 Honda Odyssey minivan, with groceries inside, was found on September 9 on Fernwood Drive in Oakland's Montclair district, just east of the SR 13 Warren Freeway. It was reported by police that neighbors first spotted the parked minivan on September 5, the day she was supposed to pick up her children at school.

Hans Reiser's neighbors said that they saw him spraying water off something in the driveway for half an hour shortly after Nina went missing and said that his car — a 1988 Honda CRX Si hatchback — disappeared shortly after, and his mother rented a car so Hans could drive hers. Police brought cadaver dogs in to search his property, but no human remains were found.

Following Nina Reiser’s disappearance, which resulted in the removal of the Reiser children from the Reiser family, Hans Reiser attempted to obtain custody but was unsuccessful. Oakland police, who generally do not testify in juvenile court custody cases, testified against Hans Reiser at the custody hearing, though they did not reveal the evidence on which they based their concerns.

Murder investigation

In September 2006, Oakland police briefly detained Hans Reiser, served him with a search warrant on his person, and obtained a DNA sample.

On October 10, 2006, following the second search of his home, Oakland police and FBI investigators removed a number of items. Police announced that they were now treating the disappearance as a homicide case, and Reiser was arrested for the murder of Nina Reiser and subsequently charged.

On October 11, 2006, law enforcement officials said that splatters of blood had been found in Hans Reiser's house and car. Forensic testing (including DNA analysis) could neither confirm nor rule out Nina Reiser as the source of the blood. Officials had not located the passenger seat of his 1988 Honda CRX Si hatchback which was missing. They also indicated that they had found in the car two books on homicide investigation purchased by Reiser on September 8 — five days after his wife’s disappearance: Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, by David Simon, and Masterpieces of Murder, by Jonathan Goodman. Daniel Horowitz, a high-profile defense attorney, joined the defense team but dropped the case on November 28, citing Reiser's inability to pay for his services. Namesys's employees state that Reiser felt the police would suspect him from the start. Reiser was arraigned on Thursday, October 12, where he delayed entering a plea until his next court appearance on November 28. He was held without bail. On November 28, Reiser entered a not guilty plea and invoked his right for a speedy trial, forcing the state to schedule a preliminary hearing for December 11.

On December 2, at the request of the Oakland police, search and rescue teams combed an area less than three miles (5 km) from Hans Reiser's house, but no new major findings were immediately announced.

Trial and conviction

Preliminary hearing

Forensic evidence

The preliminary hearing opened on December 11, 2006, with Reiser being represented by attorney William Du Bois. At the hearing, a forensic technician testified that blood matching Nina Reiser's DNA had been found on a bag in Hans Reiser's car, and on a pillar in Beverly Palmer's house, where he had been living since the separation. However, it emerged that a mistake had been made when the police analysed the blood on the pillar, rendering the evidence inconclusive. Police also testified that they had found a 40-piece socket set which may have been used to remove the passenger seat, a receipt for the purchase of the socket set from Kragen Auto Parts, four seat bolts, and a wrench with a socket in it, suggesting that the seat may have been removed recently. (However, a traffic officer who had pulled Reiser over nine days after Reiser's wife went missing, testified later in the trial that the passenger seat had been present at the time, and that he had not seen any blood.)

Police surveillance testimony

During the third day of the preliminary hearing, on December 16, 2006, Officer Gino Guerrero stated that Reiser had engaged in a lengthy cat-and-mouse game with surveillance officers who were trailing him on the evening of September 18, 2006. When Reiser left family court at 600 Washington Street in Oakland in the afternoon of September 18, he was trailed by police officers using both cars and an airplane. According to a probable cause statement, Reiser and a male friend "appeared to be conducting counter surveillance" to avoid police by driving at varying speeds, turning down small residential streets and making abrupt stops.

Reiser and his friend eventually dined at Fonda restaurant on Solano Avenue in Albany and afterwards the friend dropped Reiser at the corner of San Pablo and Ashby avenues in Berkeley. Guerrero said that Reiser walked around the area furtively, stopping occasionally to look in all directions, and eventually got into a 1988 Honda CRX which was parked on Acton Street near Carleton Street. Guerrero said police then followed Reiser as he drove the car to 2425 Monterey Road in Oakland, less than three miles (5 km) away from where Reiser was living with his mother.

Reiser's mother, Beverly Palmer, testified that she had been out of town the weekend Nina Reiser disappeared and was surprised to learn that her son was driving her car, a 2003 Honda Hybrid, and that his Honda CRX wasn't at the house. Palmer said that when she asked her son where the CRX was, he said it wasn't working and "he'd take care of it and I should never mind."

Reiser's son fails to testify

On January 17, 2007, the Reisers' seven year old son was scheduled to testify, but failed to appear. Judge Julie Conger asked that their son return to court and clarify his testimony, but he never did because his maternal grandmother failed to bring the children back from Russia as promised.

She had since begun Russian court custody proceedings. It was originally thought that Reiser's son would not return to testify in his father's trial, however in a surprising move by Alameda County District Attorney Paul Hora, the son arrived from Russia to testify before Judge Larry Goodman. On December 22, Alameda County Juvenile officials allowed the Reiser children to leave the United States without any available legal protections which may have allowed the success of custody actions brought forth by the maternal grandmother to keep the American-born children in Russia.

Prosecutor Greg Dolge stated that he spoke to the grandmother and that Reiser's son was under the care of a therapist in Russia who wanted him to stay in Russia for further treatment. It was also revealed that Nina Reiser obtained Russian citizenship for her daughter and son 2 years and 2 months, respectively, before she disappeared.

Closing arguments

Initially Judge Julie Conger said that on February 23 she would hold closing arguments and rule on whether there is enough evidence to order Hans Reiser to stand trial. On February 22 the closing arguments were postponed until March 9 because Reiser's attorney was involved with another unrelated trial which was running longer than expected.

On March 9, the judge ruled that Reiser would stand trial and Reiser's arraignment was set for March 23.

Reiser pleads not guilty

On March 23, Reiser pleaded not guilty before Judge C. Don Clay.

On June 11, Reiser's trial was assigned to Alameda County Superior Court Judge Larry Goodman, who has presided over a number of murder and death penalty cases, including the trial of Alex DeMolle.

Hearings on pretrial motions

On July 23, 2007, hearings on pretrial motions began. Potential jurors were brought to court on August 29, August 30 and September 4 to fill out questionnaires, but prospective jurors weren't questioned until September 20, 2007. Opening statements were expected to begin on October 29, 2007; however, they were postponed, and rescheduled for November 5, 2007. The defense stated that the delay was due to possible prejudicial information in a television segment about the case to be aired November 2. The prosecutor, on the other hand, said the delay was necessary as more time was needed for additional pretrial motions.

Trial

Hans Reiser's murder trial began on November 6, 2007 with opening statements from prosecutor Paul Hora.

After three days of the trial, the prosecutor concluded his opening statements urging jurors to convict Hans Reiser for murdering his wife.

Reiser's defense attorney William Du Bois offered several alternative theories, including that Nina might not have died and that she was framing Reiser for a death that did not occur. Du Bois also suggested that she and her family had ties to a Russian spy agency and organized crime. However, Du Bois later stated that "I cannot dispute that she was the victim of foul play". Sean Sturgeon, a one-time friend of Reiser, and alleged ex-lover of Nina, confessed to killing eight other people and leaving a ninth for dead. However, he claimed he did not kill Nina. According to preliminary court testimony, Sturgeon dated Nina, but she broke off the relationship in January 2006 but testimony relating to Sturgeon's confession to the separate killings was not allowed in Reiser's trial.

In his closing argument, Reiser's attorney William DuBois urged the jury to consider a sentence of voluntary manslaughter if they believed Nina is dead and that Hans Reiser killed her in a moment of passion.

Verdict

On Monday, 28 April 2008 Hans Reiser was found guilty of first degree murder. He faced a sentence of 25 years to life in prison. Sentencing was set for 9 July 2008.

Discovery of body

On Friday, 6 June 2008, Alameda County District Attorney Thomas Orloff said that Reiser might disclose the location of Nina Reiser's body in exchange for a lighter sentence.

On Monday, 7 July 2008, Hans Reiser led police to what is believed to be the body of Nina Reiser in the Oakland hills. According to officials, prosecutors had agreed to a deal whereby he would reveal the location of her body in exchange for being sentenced for second-degree murder rather than the verdict of first-degree murder that was returned against him in April.

Reiser's attorney, William Du Bois, who accompanied Reiser to the site, said that the remains were found buried on the side of a hill between Redwood Regional Park and the Huckleberry Botanic Regional Preserve, less than 0.5 miles (800 m) from the home on Exeter Drive where Reiser lived with his mother, and where Nina Reiser was last seen alive on 3 September 2006.

External links

• Hans Reiser's resume
• Interview at KernelTrap.org
• Audio Interview with Hans Reiser by RadioTux
• Reiser4 talk video on Google video by Hans
• Wired "Threat Level" - On-going Coverage of the Reiser Trial by Wired Journalists (January 2008)
• Blog of the Hans Reiser murder trial, by Henry K. Lee of the San Francisco Chronicle
• Alameda County Sheriffs Department Enter PFN: BFP563

• Ryan Paul (2006-10-11). "ReiserFS creator charged with murder". Ars Technica. Ars Technica, LLC.