Saunders overruled a specialist QC, Eleanor Laws, an expert in child abuse law, who recommended that the peer be charged.
In November, after meeting with some victims of clergy sexual abuse, Law said that he had acquired a "far deeper awareness of this terrible evil".
"New York is one of the worst states in the country for child sex abuse victims," said Marci A. Hamilton, a professor at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University who specializes in sexual abuse law.
The government indicted Mr. Nosal on many counts, including trade secret theft and violation of the computer abuse law for aiding his colleagues in exceeding their "authorized access" to the computers.
The prosecution also invoked a Florida child-abuse law under which the jury did not have to conclude that the boy had meant to kill, only that his actions were intentional and abusive.
And Ms Millar, head of the abuse law team at Leigh Day Solicitors, urged the peer to step down.
The Scottish government announced last month it will consult on whether to introduce more offences to strengthen its domestic abuse law in the new year.
Harry Fletcher, a leading criminal justice reform campaigner, has been part of recent moves to get a domestic abuse law through Parliament via a private members' bill.
Alison Millar, who is head of the abuse law team at Leigh Day Solicitors, said the inquiry had to have the confidence of survivors.
Many of the contemporary issues of substance abuse, law and order problems and the high suicide rate have been attributed in part to this absence of culture.
