By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//April 20, 2011//
Soliciting a juror’s injury
Sufficiency of the evidence; First Amendment
Even though the defendant posted the address and phone numbers of a juror, along with a call for violence, the evidence is insufficient to support a conviction for solicitation to injure a juror.
“In order to obtain a conviction in this case, the government had to prove two things. First, the government had to show that defendant solicited, commanded, induced or otherwise endeavored to persuade another person to commit a violent federal crime against Mark Hoffman. As I instructed the jury and as the parties agreed, whether a particular statement is a solicitation is determined by an objective standard. That is, a statement is a solicitation if a reasonable person hearing or reading it and familiar with its context would understand it as a serious expression that another person commit a violent felony. Second, the government had to prove, with strongly corroborative evidence, that defendant intended that another person commit a violent federal crime against Hoffman. (Tr. at 551-54.)”
“After a careful review of all the evidence, I find that the government failed to present sufficient evidence from which a reasonable jury could find either element. I further find that defendant’s statements about Hoffman were protected by the First Amendment. Accordingly, and as the Seventh Circuit acknowledged I could do if the evidence warranted it, White, 610 F.3d at 962, I will grant defendant’s motion for a judgment of acquittal.”
08-CR-851 U.S. v. White
N.D.Ill., Adelman, J.