NY judge declares mistrial in NJ blogger trial

NY judge declares mistrial in NJ blogger trial

www.miamiherald.com

By TOM HAYS
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK -- A judge declared a mistrial Monday in the case against a New Jersey blogger accused of making death threats against three federal judges in Chicago because they wrote a ruling supporting gun control.

The mistrial came after the jury sent two notes - one during its first day of deliberation on Friday and another on Monday - saying it was hopelessly deadlocked over charges Hal Turner threatened to kill or assault a federal judge. A retrial was scheduled for March 1 in Brooklyn, where the case was moved based on a change-of-venue request.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Thankfully in our increasingly authoritarian politically correct police state there is still such a thing as a jury of citizens who aren’t quite as ready to give up on the tenets of free speech as the government and its law enforcement agents are!

Like him or hate him, call him a hero or agent provocateur, a responsible citizen or a reckless and irresponsible one Hal Turner was exercising his right to free speech in a way that the government felt threatened by.

The reality is the whole purpose behind free speech is for the government to feel threatened. Threatened enough that it pays attention to what a free populace thinks and feels. The politically correct police state bent on thought and speech control doesn’t enjoy that but the Constitution does!

This was a big win for free speech advocates and a huge loss for the government!


www.miamiherald.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Prosecutors had argued that Turner knew his Internet tirade, which insisted the judges "must die," could provoke violence by members of his radical audience. The defense likened Turner to a "shock jock" and argued he was expressing an opinion protected by the First Amendment.

Sadly with the insane and democracy defeating Homeland Security Legislation and Laws there no longer is much distinction between opinion and conspiracy.

Yet voicing an opinion is just that.

Conspiring with others to a purposeful and well planned end and result is something entirely different.

The government is trying to blur that line where opinion is considered conspiracy and intent to conspire, when in reality opinion is an observation not a plan of action.

Thankfully 9 out of the 12 people on the Jury saw it that way too.

Whilst I am against violent rhetoric, I have to applaud. I would have preferred an end result of innocence the hung jury will have to do for now.

I have said it before and I'll repeat, we must as a people exercise our right to jury and not allow them to run the law over us with a heavy hand. When they pass stupid laws we should as a people not convict. If we all stood together on this it could be quite effective.

Of course in the retrial they will weed the jury pool better and find people more willing to convict him on some lesser but trumped charge.

I'm not ready to call it a win yet, this is more of a push.

reply to post by Seiko


They will keep up at it (the Government) when they tried the Liberty City Six here in Miami on Terrorism Charges it took three trials to end up with two acquitals and four guilty verdicts.

The first trial ended in a hung jury, the second resulted in a hung jury and the acquital of one defendent and the third trial resulted in one more acquital and guilty verdicts of the remaining 4 defendents.

The amazing thing was that while they were being charged with links to Al Queda the Al Queda operative they were linked to was an FBI Informant that 6 Christian Ghetto Gang Bangers were trying to scam out of money!

The government just kept trying to win a poor and very flimsy case of obvious entrapment on jury selection and spend millions and millions of dollars and years doing it!

I don't believe in violence either, but scores of non-violent people do endorse violence all the time especially in relation to the dubious war on terror.

It's alright to voice Muslim Extremists should die but not Federal Judges who violate the constitution?

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


I have also stood against the violent rhetoric voicing that muslims should die. I may not agree with their customs in pretty much anyway but I'm not going to support a war to shove ours down their throats.

Again, any body being ran under the bus is abhorrent to me. They are using emotions to divide us, and it is frightening. We can not allow our emotions to trump the concepts of liberty, ever. If we do that we become a mindless beast beset upon devouring ourselves.

reply to post by Seiko


Truer words could not be spoken and the Government and the Mainstream Media and the Coporations are all about emotional manipulation and dominance.

Fear being one of the prime motivators, greed and vanity being the others.

The News Broadcasts are nothing but one 24/7/365 effort to keep Americans angry and frightened and full of false hope.

Common sense is being murdered by political correctness.

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


Absolutely thoroughly disgusting!

That is the trouble with all supporters of NO GUN CONTROL.
You suggest training people in how to handle a gun before we pass them out willy-nilly... and they want to shoot you.

You recommend some minimal screening to keep guns out of the hands of crazy people... and they want to shoot you.

You suggest licenses be harder to get or recommend everyone NOT own an automatic weapon...and they want to shoot you.

Defend themselves..yeah right...who is going to defend me from them?