Hans Reiser

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Company portrait of Hans Reiser
Company portrait of Hans Reiser

Hans Thomas Reiser (born December 1963) is an American computer programmer famous for his contributions to the free software community in the field of file systems. In particular he is deeply involved in the Linux kernel development with his widespread ReiserFS journaling file system and its successor Reiser4. In 1997 Reiser founded and has since headed Namesys Inc., a software company specialized in operating systems and in developing and providing support for his file systems. He is currently residing in Oakland, California. Since October 10, 2006, he is charged with the murder of his missing estranged wife, Nina Reiser, and is currently being held on remand.

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[edit] Biography

Hans Reiser was born to Ramon Reiser[1] and Beverly Palmer[2] in December 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 where he received a BA in Systematizing (an individualized major dealing with physics, math and related topics). Hans 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. for the same reasons he dropped out of junior high school.[3] He was therefore unable to pursue a career in academia and worked part to full time in the computer field while building the California based international software company Namesys Inc.

From 1999 to May 2004 he was married to Nina Reiser, a Russian-born and trained doctor[4] studying to become an American licensed OB/GYN. Hans and Nina Reiser have a son and a daughter.

[edit] Nina Reiser's disappearance

Reiser's estranged wife Nina Reiser was reported missing September 5th of 2006 [4]. She was last seen on September 3, when she dropped the couple's two children off at Hans' house.

Earlier at the height of acrimonious divorce proceedings, Nina Reiser obtained a temporary restraining order against Hans in December 2004 after he allegedly pushed her.[5] Nina Reiser dropped the temporary restraining order in late 2005 because the heat of the divorce chilled over time.[6] In September 2006, and again in October, police searched Hans Reiser's home in Oakland, California.[5][7][6] Police brought cadaver dogs during one search.[8]

Nina Reiser had sole legal custody and both shared physical custody of the couple's children. Following the disappearance of Nina Reiser, which resulted in the removal of the Reiser children from the Reiser family, Hans Reiser was unsuccessful in an attempt to obtain custody. 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.[9]

[edit] Arrest

Oakland police briefly detained Hans Reiser in September, served him with a search warrant on his person, and obtained a DNA sample.[10][11] On October 10, 2006, following the second search of his home (in which 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[12][13] and subsequently charged.[14]

On October 11, 2006, law-enforcement officials said that splatters of blood had been found in Hans Reiser's house and car. DNA tests could not rule out Nina Reiser as the source of the blood. Officials have not located the passenger seat of his 1989 Honda CRX Si hatchback. They also indicated that they had seized 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[2] but dropped the case on November 28, citing Reiser's inability to pay for his services.[15] Namesys employees state that he felt the police would suspect him from the start.[1] Reiser was arraigned on Thursday, October 12, where he delayed entering a plea until his next court appearance on November 28. He is currently being held without bail.[16] 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.[15]

On December 2, at the request of the Oakland police, search and rescue teams combed a wooded area less than three miles from Hans Reiser's house, but no new major findings were immediately announced.[17]

[edit] Court appearances

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 was found on a bag in Hans Reiser's car, and on a pillar in Palmer's house, where he had been living since the separation. Police also testified that they 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, as well as four seat bolts and a wrench with a socket in it, suggesting that the seat may have been removed recently. So far Reiser did not provide any alternative explanations why the seat was missing.[18] [19]

On January 17, 2007, the Reisers' son, Rory Reiser, was scheduled to testify, but failed to appear. Judge Julie Conger asked that Rory return to court and clarify his conflicting testimony, but he never did because his maternal grandmother failed to bring the children back from Russia as promised.[20] She has since begun Russian court custody proceedings and it is unlikely the boy will return for trial, if at all. Alameda County Juvenile officials allowed the Reiser children, Rory and Niorlene to leave the United States without any available legal protections in place on December 22 which ensured that the Russian court custody actions of the maternal grandmother to keep the American born children in Russia would succeed whether the children wish it or not. Prosecutor Greg Dolge stated that he spoke to the grandmother and Rory is under the care of a therapist in Russia and the therapist wants him to stay in Russia for further treatment. It was also revealed that Nina Reiser obtained Russian citizenship for her daughter 2 years before and surreptitiously obtained Russian citizenship for her son two months before she disappeared.[21]

Initially Judge Julie Conger said that on Feb. 23 she would hold closing arguments and rule on whether there's enough evidence to order Hans Reiser to stand trial.[21] On Feb. 22 the closing arguments were postponed until March 9 because Reiser's attorney is involved with another unrelated trial which is running longer than expected.[22] On March 9, the judge ruled that Reiser would stand trial.[23] Reiser's arraignment was set for March 23.[24] On March 23 Reiser pleaded not-guilty before Judge C. Don Clay. The trial date was set for May 7.[25]

[edit] Software community reaction to arrest and charges

Following his arrest, a number of people in the Free Software community expressed concern over the future of Reiser's filesystem. For example a Slashdot thread on the subject of his arrest garnered over 1600 comments, significant numbers of which discussed the future of the filesystem.[26] However the employees of Namesys assured 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 are seeking for solutions to ensure the long term future of Namesys.[27] Consequently and also in order to afford increasing legal costs it was announced on December 21, 2006, that Hans Reiser was going to sell his company.[28]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Byfield, Bruce. "Reiser filesystem development to continue", Linux.com, 2006-10-12. Retrieved on October 23, 2006.
  2. ^ a b Harris, Harry, Dearen, Jason. "Missing woman's blood found in husband's house", San Jose Mercury News, October 11, 2006. Retrieved on October 11, 2006.
  3. ^ Andrews, Jeremy (2005-09-13). Interview: Hans Reiser. KernelTrap.org. Retrieved on October 10, 2006.
  4. ^ a b About Nina
  5. ^ a b Lee, Henry K., Zamora, Jim Herron. "Man's home searched — wife is missing", San Francisco Chronicle, September 14, 2006. Retrieved on October 10, 2006.
  6. ^ a b Lee, Henry K.. "Husband of missing Oakland mom arrested on suspicion of murder", San Francisco Chronicle, October 10, 2006. Retrieved on March 10, 2007.
  7. ^ Shuttleworth, Jeff. "Authorities Search Home of Missing Woman's Husband", CBS 5, September 13, 2006. Retrieved on October 10, 2006.
  8. ^ Wang, Lee. "Woman Missing; Husband's Home Searched", KGO-TV, September 14th, 2006.
  9. ^ "Attorney: Hans Reiser 'Distrustful' of Oakland Police", CBS 5, September 19, 2006. Retrieved on October 10, 2006.
  10. ^ "Investigators Take DNA Sample From Hans Reiser", CBS 5, September 29, 2006. Retrieved on October 10, 2006.
  11. ^ Dearen, Jason. "Oakland police briefly detain missing hills woman's husband", Contra Costa Times, October 6, 2006. Retrieved on October 10, 2006.
  12. ^ Leff, Lisa. "Oakland police arrest missing woman's estranged husband", San Francisco Chronicle, October 10, 2006. Retrieved on October 10, 2006.
  13. ^ "Police: 'All Avenues Led Back To Mr. Reiser'", NBC11, October 10, 2006. Retrieved on October 10, 2006.
  14. ^ "Police Charge Hans Reiser With Murder", CBS 5, October 10, 2006. Retrieved on October 11, 2006.
  15. ^ a b Reiser pleads not guilty to killing estranged wife.
  16. ^ "Blood evidence revealed in Reiser case", San Francisco Chronicle, October 12, 2006. Retrieved on November 23, 2006.
  17. ^ County combs new location in Reiser hunt. Inside Bay Area (December 3, 2006).
  18. ^ Jason Dearen. "Reiser wants speedy trial", Oakland Tribune, November 28, 2006. Retrieved on February 20, 2007.
  19. ^ DNA match of bloodstains in case of missing wife. San Francisco Chronicle (2006-12-21). Retrieved on December 21, 2006.
  20. ^ Judge Says Hans Reiser Can Stand Trial For Murder. KTVU.com (March 9, 2007). Retrieved on March 9, 2007.
  21. ^ a b Henry K. Lee (Jan 19, 2007). Judge lifts request for boy to testify in alleged killing. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved on March 10, 2007.
  22. ^ Reiser hearing postponed until March. Bay City News (2007-02-22). Retrieved on February 24, 2007.
  23. ^ Judge Says Hans Reiser Can Stand Trial For Murder. KTVU.com (March 9, 2007). Retrieved on March 9, 2007.
  24. ^ "Judge rules trial of U.S. man in wife's death can proceed even though body is missing", International Herald Tribune, March 9, 2007. Retrieved on March 10, 2007.
  25. ^ "Reiser pleads not guilty in wife's slaying.", San Francisco Chronicle, March 23, 2007. Retrieved on March 23, 2007.
  26. ^ "As suspect, Hans Reiser is hot topic in software world", Contra Costa Times, October 18, 2006. Retrieved on November 8, 2006.
  27. ^ Alexander Lyamin Re: The Future of ReiserFS development. Namesys Inc. (2006-10-11). Retrieved on March 14, 2007.
  28. ^ Murder Suspect Selling Namesys. Wired News (2006-12-21). Retrieved on December 30, 2006.

[edit] External links

Portal:Free software
 Free software Portal
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