7th Circuit Judges Uneasy Testifying in 'Hate Blogger' Death Threats Case
In an unusual turn of events, three U.S. Circuit judges from Chicago took to the witness stand in Brooklyn, N.Y., uneasy as they testified in the trial of an Internet broadcaster who is accused of making death threats against them.
First up on the stand for the prosecution of so-called hate blogger Harold Turner, aka Hal, was 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Richard Posner, the New York Times reports.
Turner is accused of threatening to kill Posner and two of his colleagues on the Chicago-based court, William Bauer and Frank Easterbrook. The three judges made up a panel upholding Chicago’s handgun ban.
All three testified about their reactions to Turner’s blog, which said the the judges “deserve to be killed.” Turner’s posts included photos of the judges and their work addresses. “If they are allowed to get away with this by surviving, other judges will act the same way,” he wrote.
Turner also wrote that the judges who wrote the handgun decision “didn’t get the hint” after U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow’s mother and husband were murdered by a disgruntled litigant, the New York Daily News recounts.
Most striking in the Times coverage is an exchange between defense lawyer Michael Orozco, who seemed to be rearguing the underlying case, McDonald v. City of Chicago (which was before the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday), and Judge Easterbrook.
“If it’s overturned,” Mr. Orozco asked, “doesn’t that make Hal Turner correct?”
Easterbrook fired back: “This blog post says any judge who decides a case incorrectly is supposed to be assassinated. That is not the way the system works.”
The Times notes that the appearance of the judges was a shift in strategy for prosecutors after a mistrial in December in which the judges didn’t take the stand, and jurors reported that there just wasn’t enough evidence to convict.
Turner’s trial resumes today.
