The third time worked for federal prosecutors.
After bumping up against two mistrials because of hung juries, federal prosecutors on Friday convicted Hal Turner, a racist internet radio talk show host and blogger, in Brooklyn U.S. District Court of threatening to assault and murder three U.S. Court of Appeals judges in Chicago in retaliation for them upholding a handgun ban in Chicago.
Jurors deliberated for about two hours before reaching a verdict in a trial that started Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Authorities said that Turner, 47, of North Bergen, N.J., was immediately taken into custody pending sentencing. He faces up to 10 years in prison.
Turner was charged in June 2009 for writing Internet postings, saying he was outraged about the handgun decision by the judges.
“Let me be the first to say this plainly: These Judges deserve to be killed,” he wrote. He also posted photographs, phone numbers, work address and room numbers of these judges, authorities said. The case was charged in Chicago, but a change of venue moved it to New York.
“There is no place in society for threatening federal judges with violence. Period,” U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said in a statement.”We are grateful that the jury saw these threats for what they were and rejected any notion that they were acceptable speech.”
