Surely they have enough evidence to convict the accused. The phone likely wouldn't give them anything essential to the case. It's already a wrap.
However, the legal precedent would be invaluable for future <s>rights violations</s>legal proceedings. They have 1. Nothing to lose in this particular case. 2. A maximally effective situation for getting this ruling, complete with irrational fear-based public support ("bcuz turrists!1!").
Seriously. If your goal is to create this legal precedent, go ahead and try to imagine a better scenario under which this could rule in your favor. I'll wait.
The only iPhone the FBI have is the work phone, which he might not have used to contact terrorists with it. If he did he'd destroy it as well.
The problem is that judges and politicians are not tech savvy enough to understand why they shouldn't force Apple to make a tool to break passcodes on iPhones. How that makes any iPhone insecure in the wrong hands.
The primary service provider being Apple, who operates a fully encrypted messaging system where the cleartext only ever exists on the device.
It's a child abuser's wet dream.
Chances are, this happened at least once over the lifetime of the terrorists ownership of the phone - thus we can at least see who they are communicating with, right?
Wouldn't that be a good starting point?
And call records - they must have called someone - if only to talk about the weather.
Is that really acceptable to you? Maybe they accidentally screwed up once so it's OK to keep the private affairs of a dead terrorist secret for no good reason?
> Wouldn't that be a good starting point?
I would have thought the best starting point was unlocking the phone, given the owner is dead and committed horrific crimes.
But not the service provider intentionally denying access to this vital information? What a bizarre twist of logic!
Phone call, texts, or data logs? Subpoena the cell company or the ISP.
Email? Subpoena the hosting provider.
Any communications used on that phone traveled over the Internet, and the logs are most likely preserved. They could get all of the logs of outgoing requests from the cell company and then go to each service provider and demand dumps of data from any accounts that Phone logged into right?