Man who threatened Obama sentenced

A Wisconsin man was sentenced late today in federal court in Jackson to three years in prison for making a threat on the Internet to assassinate then-President-elect Barack Obama.

Steven Joseph Christopher, 42, faced a maximum five years in prison.

After a nearly daylong sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate imposed the sentence.

Christopher pleaded guilty in July after Wingate agreed with him that he was competent to stand trial, although the U.S. attorney's office said a psychologist determined Christopher was mentally incompetent.

Christopher said he never intended to harm Obama. He said he made the threat to gain attention for his cause that he is the second coming of Christ and the apocalypse is coming in 2012 and much of the world will be destroyed.

www.clarionledger.com...

Apparently the Secret Service takes these threats seriously even if from a nutter.
Anyone here paranoid about the things they may have written about Obama on ATS?

Notice that Mr. Christopher only made an threat on the www.

[edit on 7-11-2009 by whaaa]

Wow. He was determined to be mentally imcompetent, but the judge sent him to jail anyway.

Cindy Sheehan once said she would like to stick a knife into GWB's cold black heart. No repercussions for that, though. I wonder what would happen to her if she said that about Obama.

There is a huge difference between speaking critically of Obama, and making a threat. We're free to say anything we like about the President, his decisions, his ancestry, etc. We are not free to threaten, or to imply a threat, to the President.

Most of us on ATS only criticize the President. I rarely if ever see any threats here. But, if anyone has threatened the President on ATS - are they still posting? Or did they somehow disappear??

The moderators on any Forum would (should) be pretty aware of this problem, and any direct threat to a President made on ATS would get zapped pretty quickly IMHO.

reply to post by whaaa


It is illegal to threaten the president. The secret service is in charge of protecting him. They do everything from stand in the way of bullets to investigate internet death threats. They have been known to shoot people simply for being suspected of intending harm.


[edit on 7-11-2009 by LordBucket]

reply to post by whaaa


It is interesting that the convict someone who has no possible ability to carry out the threat.

Second Line.

-EyesII

This is why i always say in my posts no one should do anything to obama.

Seems i was right, you should all be careful, as even though you never want to goto america, these nuts will make up you mean something bad when your just ranting.

[edit on 11/7/2009 by andy1033]

Three years ?

Looks like he'll be out just in time for 12-21-12 ! HaHa !