Billy Raymond Counterman had been convicted of stalking musician Coles Whalen through online messages. But were they 'true threats'?
June 27 Update: Today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Counterman v. Colorado, and found that Colorado had violated Billy Counterman's First Amendment rights by convicting him of stalking a female musician online. “In today’s ruling, the Court creates a loophole for delusional and devious stalkers and misapprehends the very nature of threats faced by stalking victims.
"If the court upholds this conviction, it will allow a huge swath of online speech to be potentially criminally prosecuted," Schweikert tells."Can you imagine people arguing with politicians they disagree with on Twitter, the types of comments that they leave...? The point is, if and when some public figure has some other reason to go after someone, this could form the basis for what is, in effect, their threat against a critic.
Whalen, who grew up in Colorado and briefly lived in Nashville before moving back to Denver in 2012, was stalked on Facebook by Counterman from 2010 to 2016. He sent messages such as"Was that you in the white Jeep?" and"Five years on Facebook. Only a couple of physical sightings."Other texts were more menacing."Your arrogance offends anyone in my position," he said at one point."You're not being good for human relations. Die. Don't need you.
Whalen stopped touring as a result of the harassment — a major setback for an artist who had relied on traveling to support herself. Counterman was eventually arrested in Denver in 2016 on two counts of stalking: one for making a credible threat and another for causing serious emotional distress, as well as a harassment charge.
"And if the only question is, 'Would a reasonable person interpret this statement as threatening without needing to prove that the statement was a threat?' — imagine the politician that you trust least in the world deciding how uncomfortable they feel with your messages to them on Twitter, and deciding whether to report that to a prosecutor or not.
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