Third Time Is The Charm: Hal Turner Convicted On Threatening Federal Judges

After two prior mistrials, the third jury convicted New Jersey talk radio host Hal Turner of threatening three federal court judges.

Two previous prosecutions of the host, Harold C. Turner, ended in mistrials after jurors were unable to agree on a verdict, but the decision Friday came after less than two hours of deliberation.

Mr. Turner, 48, posted inflammatory Internet messages about the three appeals court judges who had upheld a ban of handguns in Chicago. He was charged with a single count of threatening to assault or kill the judges with the intent of impeding their official duties.

In a June 2009 posting about their unanimous decision to uphold the gun ban, which the Supreme Court overturned in June, Mr. Turner wrote, “If they are allowed to get away with this by surviving, other judges will act the same way.”

Mr. Turner, who lives in North Bergen, N.J., also wrote a blog entry accompanied by photos of the judges in which he said they “deserve to be killed.”

Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the United States attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, where the appeals court is, issued a statement saying, “We are grateful that the jury saw these threats for what they were and rejected any notion that they were acceptable speech.”

Mr. Turner’s lawyer, Peter Kirchhheimer, had no comment on the verdict. Federal prosecutors said the posting constituted a genuine threat.

Mr. Turner, who has said his audience includes members of the Ku Klux Klan and the Aryan Nation, and who once proclaimed that he would be “honored” to take credit for the murder of a federal judge’s family, countered that the incendiary invective was protected speech. He testified that in saying the judges were worthy of death, he was expressing a critical opinion, not issuing a directive.

But the judges — William J. Bauer, Frank H. Easterbrook and Richard A. Posner — testified that they had felt imperiled by Mr. Turner’s posting.

Hal Turner Retrial Ends In Mistrial

Hal Turner, who was on trial for a single count of making death threats to federal judges, was let off the hook again as the jury deadlocked and a mistrial was declared.

Prosecutors are putting on a good face and say that they're looking at a third trial with an April 12 date. I'm not so sure that they'll have any better luck than the first two trials unless they can separate the FBI informant period from the fact that the statements were made in a forum where his listeners are white supremacists and racists who are amenable to such hate speech.

Turner's supporters will likely see this as a green light to make inflammatory and dangerous statements of their own.

Once again, it seems that Turner's background as an FBI informant was the deciding factor here - even as the statements were made after he stopped working for the FBI.

Turner Takes Witness Stand In Own Defense In Hate Speech Case

Hal Turner is taking the stand today. He's accused of making threats against three federal court judges and the first trial ended in a mistrial. Prosecutors decided to have the threatened judges testify in the retrial along with additional evidence and conditions on the trial.

Turner, who built an audience of neo-Nazis and white supremacists with his radio show, is on trial here on a single charge of threatening three Chicago-based federal appeals court judges. The charge is based on a posting Turner made on his radio network blog last June in which he said the judges “deserved to be killed” for their ruling in a gun control case.

If convicted, he faces 10 years in prison.

In an investigative report last November, based on FBI documents, The Record outlined Turner’s secret FBI role in infiltrating the same groups who were drawn to his radio show and blog. Besides neo-Nazis, Turner said he made contact with the Ku Klux Klan and the Aryan Nation.

In more than two hours of testimony before lunch, Turner described how he was recruited in 2003 by the FBI’s Newark-based Joint Terrorism Task Force. He said he was paid “in excess of $100,000” by the FBI during his almost five years as an informant.

All that time as an informant does not excuse his utterances of death threats against the judges. He wasn't on the FBI payroll at the time he made those statements.

It's little wonder then that Tom Metzger decided to drop by and disagree with my characterization of Turner as a hatemonger. Metzger's association with, and intimate knowledge of, hate speech is all too clear from Metzger's own background as the founder of the White Aryan Resistance, a grand dragon in the KKK, and spewing all manner of hate speech online.

Retrial of Hal Turner Gets Underway

Hal Turner, the right wing hatemonger who is accused of making death threats against three federal court judges, is again on trial in Brooklyn. The first trial ended in a mistrial; the new case will include additional witnesses and evidence.

Turner, 47, of North Bergen is accused of threatening to assault and murder the judges with intent to impede, intimidate and interfere with the jurists while engaged in the performance of their official duties, or with intent to retaliate.

His first trial ended in a mistrial in December when the jury deadlocked with a majority favoring acquittal.

As the retrial got under way Monday, U.S. District Judge Donald E. Walter made it clear that this trial would be handled differently.

He told Turner’s lawyers they could not make an opening statement to the jury until the government has rested its case. He also forbade them from revealing during cross-examination that Turner had worked as an informant for the FBI, providing intelligence on the white supremacist movement, until the defense puts on its own case.

Turner’s lawyers contend he did nothing more than express an opinion. They said he was coached by the FBI to make provocative statements on the air and on his blog as a way of keeping tabs on right-wing hate groups and other extremist organizations that were drawn to his caustic rhetoric.

Where does free speech end and criminality begin? In Turner's case, he went well over that line by espousing violence against the three federal court judges.

Moreover, that he was an informant for some time before he was arrested should not affect this case - no one forced him to make the statements and he was not working for the FBI at the time he made them. He crossed that line.

Jury Deadlocked In Hal Turner Case

The jury is deadlocked after just a couple hours of deliberation of the charges against Hal Turner. He's accused of threatening three federal judges through his radio program and online presence:

U.S. District Court Judge Donald Walter ordered the jury to return Monday morning to resume deliberations on whether Turner, 47, broke the law against threatening judges when he wrote on his blog last June that three federal appeals court judges “deserved to be killed” for ruling in favor of a gun control ordinance.

If convicted, Turner, who built an audience in recent years of neo-Nazis and white supremacists with his extreme right-wing radio and blog tirades, could be sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The central issue in the case is whether Turner’s words alone constitute an illegal threat.

Prosecutors contend that Turner’s words were aimed to “impede,” “intimidate” and “retaliate” against the federal judges – all elements of a threat, they say. But Turner’s defense lawyers say Turner’s statement on his blog was merely his opinion as a shock jock and therefore protected as free speech under the First Amendment.

Hal Turner Bombshell: Illegal Ammo Found In Search

Hal Turner, the talk show host who's been arrested and charged with state and federal crimes of threatening judges in Connecticut and Chicago, may now face New Jersey weapons charges after a search of his home turned up 150 rounds of illegal hollow point ammunition.

Infamous hate blogger and Internet radio host Hal Turner had an arsenal in his home that included 200 rounds of ammunition and 150 hollow-point bullets -- which are illegal -- when it was searched by the FBI yesterday, it was disclosed in court today.

Federal officials dropped the bombshell at Turner's hearing this afternoon in Newark. Turner, who is charged with threatening to kill federal judges in Chicago in a blog post on June 2, was held without bail -- at least temporarily.

Turner will be held until the value of his mother's Pennsylvania home, which would be used to secure the $200,000 bail bond, could be proven.

FBI seized the ammunition as well as three handguns and one shotgun, officials said. Turner's attorney, Michael Orozco, said Turner had permits for the guns. A Jersey City police spokesman said Turner's hollow-point bullets are illegal, and added that only law enforcement officers and members of the military can own them.

Hal Turner Arrested By FBI For Threatening Chicago Judges

Hal Turner, a New Jersey talk show host, who has made threats against Connecticut politicians and was arrested a couple weeks back, has now been arrested again. This time, he's been threatening Chicago area judges.

An Internet radio host and blogger charged earlier this month with encouraging people to "take up arms" against three public officials in Connecticut was arrested again Wednesday on charges that he threatened to assault and murder three federal judges in retaliation for a ruling upholding handgun bans in the Chicago area.

FBI agents charged Hal Turner, 47, of North Bergen, N.J., at his home on charges related to the appeals court judges. The federal charges in Chicago arise from Internet postings on June 2 and 3 in which Turner allegedly proclaimed his "outrage" over a June 2 decision by Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook and Judges Richard Posner and William Bauer of the Chicago-based U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

"Let me be the first to say this plainly: These Judges deserve to be killed," said the postings, which also included photographs, phone numbers, work addresses and room numbers of the judges, along with a photo of the building in which they work and a map of its location.

The Chicago arrest warrant affidavit suggests that the Internet postings were inspired by lawsuits in Chicago and suburban Oak Park that followed a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year upholding the right of citizens to keep handguns in their homes for protection. The lawsuits challenged handgun bans that remained in effect after the high court's ruling. The three judges dismissed the lawsuits in an opinion written for a unanimous court.

This guy is a crank, and the concern is that someone in his audience might go ahead and follow through on those threats.

Turner, of course, is claiming that this is all part of his 1st Amendment rights to free speech, but this goes beyond free speech when he is threatening the lives of people and inciting others to violence. That gets no constitutional protection.

Threatening federal officials carries serious penalties since this is likely to be charged under 18 USC 115, which carries a prison sentence of up to six years and a fine.