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| Court tosses conviction after man threatened Bush |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 04/11/2005 |
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A federal appeals court last Friday overturned an inmate's conviction for writing a crude, rambling letter endorsing President Bush's death at the hands of terrorists - two weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The letter from Oregon State Penitentiary prisoner Jonathan Lincoln, who was charged with threatening the president and given an 18-month sentence last year, read, in part: "You will die too George W Bush real Soon they Promised That you would Long Live Bin Laden." Corrections officials intercepted the letter; Lincoln had been serving a 46-month sentence for robbery. A unanimous three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the letter was protected under the First Amendment, calling it "Lincoln's crude and offensive method of stating a political opposition to the president." The court noted "such political hyperbole does not constitute a 'threat.'" The decision reversed a ruling by Judge James Redden, who tried the case without a jury. Redden ruled the letter constituted a "true threat" when combined with statements Lincoln made six months earlier to a Secret Service agent that he wanted to assassinate the president. Lincoln's attorney, Michael Levine, said his client was mentally disabled. He was released from prison last month and lives in a Portland, Ore., halfway house. Frank Noonan, the Justice Department attorney who prosecuted Lincoln, did not immediately return calls for comment. |
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