Right-wing Blogger Convicted of Making Death Threats

.

Nice to see scum like this getting what they deserve.

Hal Turner, an online radio “shock jock” and blogger, was convicted on Friday of threatening to kill three federal judges in Chicago, Illinois, in retaliation for a ruling they made that upheld handgun bans, government officials said.

Turner was arrested and charged in June 2009 for posting incendiary comments that said the judges involved in the case deserved to be killed. The three judges he threatened, who had upheld a ban on handguns in Chicago and the Oak Park suburb, testified at the trial.

[...]

The post included photographs of the judges, their phone numbers, addresses and a map of the building where they work.

Turner has been known to post the names and home addresses of judges he believes are on the wrong side of conservative issues, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups.

Get a load of his defense.

Turner had sought to portray himself as a “shock jock” and fierce gun control opponent whose tirades were protected by the constitutional right to free speech.

“He thought it was political trash talk,” defense attorney Peter Kirchheimer said in opening statements. “It was the same thing he’d done many times before, only this time he was arrested.”

Testifying in his own defense, Turner said he was a paid FBI informant who was trying to “flush out” dangerous neo-Nazi and white supremacist members of his audience on behalf of the government.

I’m just waiting for some wingnut to cry out that the judge should have recused himself from the case.  They’ll claim his judgment was compromised in presiding over a case involving other judges.

___

To receive new posts directly on your Facebook page, become a member of MarioPiperniDotCom’s page. Click on ‘Like’ here

.