www.CyclopsWarrior.blogspot.com: Hal Turner Trial #3! Feds Squandering Tax Dollars For A Non Crime!

Monday, August 9, 2010

Hal Turner Trial #3! Feds Squandering Tax Dollars For A Non Crime!

For Third Time, Blogger Charged With Menacing Judges Goes on Trial
Mark Fass
New York Law Journal
August 10, 2010
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202464418155&For_Third_Time_Blogger_Charged_With_Menacing_Judges_Goes_on_Trial

Round three of the United States versus Harold "Hal" Turner, the Internet shock jock charged with threatening to kill three Chicago appeals judges, begins this morning in Brooklyn federal court.

Turner was arrested last June after writing on his blog that three judges on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals -- Richard Posner, William Bauer and Frank Easterbrook -- "deserve to be killed" for their opinion in N.R.A. v. Chicago, 08-4241, which upheld handgun bans in Chicago and Oak Park, Ill.

"Their blood will replenish the tree of liberty," Turner wrote in June 2009. "A small price to pay to assure freedom for millions." Turner, who hosted a weekly Webcast from his home in North Bergen, N.J., also posted the judges' photographs, work addresses and phone numbers, and promised to soon add their home addresses.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois charged Turner with threatening to kill the three judges.

The case, United States v. Turner, 09-cr-00650, was assigned to Judge Donald Walter, who sat on assignment from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. Walter transferred the case to Brooklyn, then came along to hear it.

The first two trials ended in mistrials.

In Turner I, the jury did not hear testimony from the three allegedly threatened judges, and voted 9-3 to acquit. Leaving the courthouse, a juror complained to reporters, "The prosecution's case was so weak. He just bailed out. He had a whole slough of witnesses. Why did the government only call six witnesses?"

The prosecution, led by Assistant U.S. Attorney William Hogan, apparently heard that complaint, and for the second trial flew the three appellate judges to New York to testify about the alleged threats.

Although Judge Posner's appearance was the most widely anticipated, Judge Easterbrook's made for the best theater. He told the jury that after reading Turner's posts, his "principal concern was that somebody would try to come kill me or shoot me or blow me up."

Turner's attorney, Michael Orozco, asked Judge Easterbrook, "If [N.R.A. v. Chicago] is overturned, doesn't that make Hal Turner correct?"

The judge replied that Orozco clearly did not understand the U.S. Constitution and then offered a lengthy disquisition on the history of the Second Amendment. Turner's "blog post says any judge who decides a case incorrectly should be assassinated," Judge Easterbrook concluded. "That is not the way the system works."

In the end, the judges' appearances did not provide sufficient help and the jury again failed to reach a verdict, although its vote was not disclosed.

Judge Walter ordered a third trial, for which a jury is scheduled to be selected this morning. Opening arguments may begin as early as this afternoon.

Much has changed in the five months since Turner II.

Minutes after that jury was released, Orozco informed the court that he and his co-counsel, Chicago solo practitioner Nishay Kumar Sanan, had been fired. Turner now will be represented by the Brooklyn Federal Defender's office. The office's chief, Peter Kirchheimer, will try the case. Kirchheimer did not return a call for comment.

And in June, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the decision that spurred Mr. Turner's alleged threats, N.R.A. v. Chicago, and remanded the case to the 7th Circuit.

However, Hogan, the lead prosecutor, said Monday that there have been no major developments since Turner II, and that he expects the three judges to take the stand again as early as Wednesday.

Orozco said he considered the Supreme Court's reversal of N.R.A. v. Chicago a vindication. "Apparently it was Judge Easterbrook that didn't understand the U.S. Constitution," Orozco said. "Their decision was overturned. They got it wrong. Hal Turner was correct. His analysis was correct."

Asked to handicap the third trial, Orozco said that, after the testimony of the three judges proved insufficient, the prosecution will try to add a new twist to the case, but that he expected Kirchheimer to win an acquittal. "I'm sure he has some bombs to lob their way," Orozco said. "Of course, I mean that in the colloquial sense."