Court tosses conviction of man who endorsed Bush's death

Associated Press via MercuryNews ^ | Fri, Apr. 08, 2005 | DAVID KRAVETS

[mdittmar]

Mailing a letter to the White House supporting President Bush's death at the hands of terrorists is not illegal, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

The decision overturns the conviction and 18-month sentence given last year to an Oregon inmate who sent a rambling, poorly written letter to the president. It read, in part, "You will die too George W Bush real Soon they Promised That you would Long Live Bin Laden."

[DoctorMichael]

{shaking head in disbelief} Disgusting ruling! {/shaking head in disbelief}

[ABG(anybody but Gore)]

It looks like the judges let him off because he was a stupid illiterate moron.This is one case where brain damage or the lack of a brain worked in someones favor.

The 9th Circus has plenty of hands, or rather heads, on experience in that area.

[Condor51]

With all due respect did anyone even bother to read the full court opinion posted by #35?

If you did you'd see a couple things:

• The three judge panel of this 9th Circus decision consisted of; 1) Judge Nelson, appointed by GW Bush; 2) Judge Rawlinstin, appointed by Clinton and; 3) Judge Schwarzer appointed by Ford.
  (so much for 'our' assumption of liberal judges being the villain in this case)

• Secondly if you read the opinion you'll see why and how they arrived at the decision. The bottom line is that in this nut cases rambling letter he struck out any reference to himself and inserted words like 'they' and 'them'. In effect the letter wished for Dubya's death and 'predicted' that Bin Laden would be the one to kill him. These little facts changed it from a direct threat to protected 1st amendment speech.

All that being said this guy whack-job will be on some 'watch list'. As previously he wrote in a notebook about personally killing Dubya & Laura, Clinton and other politicians with a 30-06. Unfortunately that notebook was part of his therapy and ruled 'privileged' and that it never should have seen the light of day in a court room.

[COBOL2Java]

he prolly dint use punctuation or capitals and wrote in hugh run-on sentences with many misspeelings and many abbrvs

IOW, a DU'er?

[freepatriot32]

I like your writing style.

Thanks

[Libertina]

Correct. The man who attempted to assasinate
Reagan is still alive and has HOME VISITS. Kennedy's shooter is dead.

[ALWAYSWELDING]

I'm so sick of these judges. They want us to pay for security systems for their homes and they refuse lock up a man who has publicly written of the demise of The President at the hands of terrorists and privately written of his death by his own hands. Conveniently enough the judges threw out the latter so they don't have to do anything about the former. What a joke.

[mdittmar]

by twice crossing out the words `us' and `we' and substituting the words `they' and `them.'

Oh,well heck,if he used the old double cross out twice,it's obvious he was just funin'.

Looking at his other "non-threats" I hope they keep a close eye on him when he gets out in 46-months,probably less,good behavior don't ya know.

This guy is definitely one Fruit Loop shy of a full bowl.

[Recovering_Democrat]

[Pride in the USA]

More insanity from the courts. You can bet that if a dem were president, this guy would have been convicted and given the maximum sentence.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

This has interesting timing, personally. I had a secret service agent make a comment yesterday about how it's illegal to threaten a Pres., "except you'll never get convicted in our circuit court."

[Libertina]

Our presidents need to be more careful about who they appoint to the bench. But it isn't always easy...some of these old geezers seem to become more socialist and extreme with age.

[BohDaThone]

According to the record, Hale SOLICITED someone to kill the judge -- that's a couple of notches up from just threatening.

[righttackle44]

Hey, now that it's legal, let's start praying for
the deaths of more federal judges.

Do not cause any.

Just pray for the the Lord to take 'em out.

They themselves said it's okay.

[IonImplantGuru]

It's a fine line, but a line just the same. If wishing ill on the president were illegal, half of the people on this board would have been imprisoned during the Clinton years :)

48 posted on 04/08/2005 5:25:58 PM PDT by Arthalion

=======================================================

If everyone in the country who endorses Bush's death got 18 months, there wouldn't be a Democrat on the streets.

49 posted on 04/08/2005 5:25:59 PM PDT by Mr Ramsbotham

LOL! GMTAA - Great minds think almost alike!

What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, as dear old Mom was wont to say.

[IonImplantGuru]

These are the same guys who said the website showing abortionists still in practice, or who died, or who had retired was, in fact, a threat!

That's not way I read the full court opinion (linked in post #35). The 9th court referred to to the case you're talking about and said because the abortionists were pictured on on wanted posters it was indeed a threat and incitement to violence.

[benjibrowder]

Isn't there something like "Clear and Present Danger"? What about sedition and treason for supporting Bin Laden? If it was Bubba Clinton than that idiot would be in jail right now! It's the liberals not liking Bush.

[benjibrowder]

The threat may or may not be implied in the statement. Regardless of which, Baker Act him. He's clearly delusional!

[desherwood7]

Let me guess, Those "enlightened" individuals on the ninth circuit court of appeals said it's free speech, Right?

[GOPologist]

If Kerry was president, and thank God he isn't, such a letter to him would have landed the writer in jail, and the 9th Circuit court would NOT free the writer!!!!!

Tsk,tsk, such is the life of a Republican President, called "screwing."