USA vs Bagdasarian 19july2011!09!50529 california ninth circuit appeals court reverse convictions under, 18 U.S.C. § 879(a)(3), which makes it a crime to
this is a fascinating opinion and well worth the read. what the court is saying here is that "to those familiar with american political history, none of this should have come as a surprise;" you cant send an internet message board troll to jail for being ... well ... an internet message board troll.
“knowingly and willfully threaten [ ] to kill, kidnap, or inflict bodily harm upon . . . a major candidate for the office of President or Vice President, or a member of the immediate family of such candidate.”On October 22, 2008, when Barack Obama’s election was looking more and more likely, Bagdasarian, under the username “californiaradial,” joined a “Yahoo! Finance — American International Group” message board, on which members of the public posted messages concerning financial matters, AIG, and other topics.
the opinion runs to page 20 and from there to page 34, judge wardlaw, in a long bleeding-heart liberal rant that'll surely get the violins tuned up and the tears flowing, opined that she would have affirmed the conviction.
At 1:15 am on the day that he joined, Bagdasarian posted the following statement on the message board:
“Re: Obama fk the niggar, he will have a 50 cal in the head soon.”
about twenty minutes later, he posted another statement on the same message board:
“shoot the nig country fkd for another 4 years+, what nig has done ANYTHING right???? long term???? never in history, except sambos.” ~ opinion page 5
