WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court has thrown out the conviction of a Pennsylvania man accused of making threats on Facebook.
In a seven-to-two ruling, the court declared it was not enough for prosecutors to show that the comments of Anthony Elonis would make a reasonable person feel threatened.
“The jury was instructed that the Government need prove only that a reasonable person would regard Elonis’s communications as threats, and that was an error,” said Chief Just John Roberts. “Federal criminal liability generally does not turn solely on the results of an act without considering the defendant’s mental state.”
But the court failed to specify to the lower courts what the standard of proof should be.
Elonis was prosecuted for making illegal threats after he posted Facebook rants in the form of rap lyrics about killing his estranged wife, harming law enforcement officials and shooting up a school.
He claimed the government had no right to prosecute him if he didn’t intend his comments to be threatening to others.
Elonis said his musings were protected by the First Amendment and were a form of therapy that allowed him to cope with the breakup of his marriage and being fired from his job at an amusement park.
“There’s one way to love you but a thousand ways to kill you. I’m not going to rest until your body is a mess, soaked in blood and dying from all the little cuts,” wrote Elonis in one of the posts.
Elonis’ wife testified that the comments made her fear for her life, and she persuaded a judge to issue a protective order.
Then after his wife obtained the restraining order he wrote, “Is it thick enough to stop a bullet?”
Those and other comments led to his arrest.
The case was the first major test of free speech rights on the Internet, but the justices issued a narrow ruling, declaring it “unnecessary to consider any First Amendment issues” in the case.
