Court reverses conviction in online rant against Obama

[Leo 9]

Court reverses conviction in online rant against Obama

A Southern California man's racist post in 2008 suggesting that the then-presidential candidate should be shot is lawful online speech, not a crime, according to a divided federal appeals court.


Walter Bagdasarian, who was found guilty of violating a statute prohibiting threats to kill, kidnap or do bodily harm to a major presidential candidate, says he was drunk when he posted racially charged comments about Barack Obama on the Internet in 2008. (Fox5SanDiego.com / July 20, 2011)

By Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times

July 20, 2011

A Southern California man who posted an online racist rant that suggested Barack Obama should be shot during the 2008 presidential campaign was engaged in constitutionally protected free speech and should not have faced criminal charges, a divided federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The decision overturns the conviction of Walter Bagdasarian of La Mesa, northeast of San Diego, who was found guilty two years ago by a federal judge in San Diego of violating a statute prohibiting threats to kill, kidnap or do bodily harm to a major presidential candidate.

Tuesday's 2-1 ruling by a panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said that Bagdasarian's vitriolic epithets were "particularly repugnant" because they endorsed violence. But the panel concluded that a reasonable person wouldn't have taken seriously his diatribe in an online chat room at 1 a.m.

Bagdasarian, writing under the anonymous Internet identity of "Californiaradial," posted the comments on a Yahoo.com financial site on Oct. 22, 2008, when Obama's campaign for the White House was ascendant.

Another participant in the online exchange reported the provocative postings to law enforcement officials, leading to a Secret Service investigation and federal charges that could have sent the offender to prison for a decade.

Bagdasarian was sentenced to time served after a bench trial in 2009 and put on supervised release for two years, which included a prohibition against possessing firearms.

Among the comments he had posted was an observation that Obama "will have a 50 cal in the head soon" and that someone should "shoot the ."

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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0720-obama-threat-20110720,0,7128388.story

[The Magistrate]

1. Honestly, Sir: A White Man Says He Will Kill Some Negro, Where is The Crime In That?

[MADem]

2. Gosh, I wonder how those judges would feel if the guy wrote a screed about

taking target practice on them?

Can't help but wonder if the call would have been different....

[AtomicKitten]

3. That kind of ruling really makes me fear for this country.

:scared: