David Kernell, a University of Tennessee student and the son of a Democratic state legislator, was indicted this month on charges that he had hacked into the e-mail account of Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Mr. Kernell has pleaded not guilty.

Now some legal scholars are wondering how the charges against Mr. Kernell were raised to a felony — from a misdemeanor — which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

“In order to charge the case as a felony rather than a misdemeanor, the government needed to claim that the intrusion was committed to further criminal or tortious activity,” writes Orin S. Kerr, a professor at George Washington University’s law school who specializes in computer crime.

But the indictment against Mr. Kernell doesn’t state any other criminal activity that he was trying to engage in by accessing Ms. Palin’s e-mail, explains Mr. Kerr. “It makes no sense to allow a felony enhancement for a crime committed in furtherance of the crime itself; presumably the enhancement is only for intrusions committed in furtherance of some other crime,” he writes.

Paul Ohm, an associate professor of law at the University of Colorado at Boulder who also specializes in computer crime and information privacy, wrote in a blog posting that the indictment was “strange, strange, strange.”

“Surely, the government doesn’t mean Kernell deserves the felony because he obtained information from Palin’s account in furtherance of obtaining information from Palin’s account!” Mr. Ohm writes.