Mitnick served five years in prison—four and a half years pre-trial

So much for that Constitutional right to a speedy trial.

law enforcement officials convinced a judge that he had the ability to "start a nuclear war by whistling into a pay phone

I'm sure there are judges still on the bench who could be convinced of this in 2018.

Regardless of how much technology has advanced tremendously in the past several decades, there are too many judges serving who know little to nothing about it. Obviously we can't expect every judge to be an IT expert, but law enforcement has certainly taken advantage of their naivety and continue to do so now.

Too many law enforcement personal and prosecutors think they're Judge Dredd. They want to fuck people over to the extreme. They care more about their "record" than they do justice.

In this particular case I'm sure there were more than enough people involved in the IT part of the investigation that could have testified it was impossible to whistle into a phone and launch nuclear missiles.

But their career was more important than the truth.