vigilant TV

A US teen faces a possible 2 year prison sentence for posting anonymous threats against President Bush on the FBI web site – sofar nothing unusual, other than the kid’s stupidity. The charge seems a little strange though: he doesn’t appear to be charged with making a threat; merely with “using the Internet” to commit a crime.

Although police and federal officials said 17-year-old Johnnie Edward Harris did nothing to follow through on the threat, he faces up to two years in prison.

A judge Thursday ordered Harris to stand trial on one count of using the Internet to communicate with another person to commit a crime.

[...]

On Nov. 12, the FBI received a message that stated: “I am going to kill the president and there is nothing you can f———do about it u (sic) gay motherf——-,” according to a police report.

The next day, the U.S. Secret Service’s Internet team in Washington, D.C., contacted Agent Joseph Cichino in the agency’s Detroit office, about the message. While investigating it, Cichino learned of a similar threat sent Nov. 19 via the “question and comment section” on the FBI’s Web site. That threat: “I am going to kill George Bush.”

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[Defense attorney Lorie Niskar] unsuccessfully argued the charge against Harris didn’t fit because the threat was merely “put out there” in cyberspace and not directly addressed to a specific individual.

– Macomb Daily, Teen to face trial for threat against president.