NEWS 409 Lecture Notes - Lecture 40: United States Note, Samuel Alito, Jury Instructions
3 Mar 2019
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Elonis used facebook to post lyrics containing graphically violent language and imagery concerning his wife, co-workers, children and law enforcement. He said the lyrics were fictitious and that elonis was exercising his first amendment rights. The agency monitored elonis"s facebook activity and charged him under 18 u. s. c. 875(c), which makes it a crime to transmit in interstate commerce any communication containing any threat to injure the person of another. Elonis requested a jury instruction that the government was required to prove that he intended to communicate a true threat . The district court told the jury that elonis could be found guilty if a reasonable person would foresee that his statements would be interpreted as a threat. The instruction, requiring only negligence with respect to communication of a threat, is not sufficient support under this section conviction. Mere omission from a criminal enactment of any mention of criminal intent does not eliminate that requirement.
