LINDSAY WHITEHURST
Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A federal appeals court has tossed the conviction of a Utah man who was found guilty of threatening a professor by sending a violent anti-immigrant email.
The judges ruled the verdict violated Aaron Michael Heineman’s freedom of speech because it didn’t take into account whether he wanted the professor to feel threatened when he sent the poem in 2011 calling him anti-American and a traitor.
Prosecutors said the professor called police in fear for the lives of himself and his family when he got the email threatening death with a Bowie knife and noose.
Heineman’s father and his defense attorney argued the student at Utah Valley University was born deaf and has been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, making it hard for him to understand social behavior and cues.
U.S. District Judge David Nuffer refused to consider whether Heineman actually wanted the professor to feel threatened, ruling that someone could reasonably be afraid after getting the email.
Heineman was sentenced to three years’ probation last year.
But in a ruling handed down Monday, the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals tossed the conviction and ordered the Utah court to consider Heineman’s intentions.
The panel of judges ruled that anytime speech becomes a crime, courts have to weigh First Amendment rights carefully.
A spokeswoman U.S. Attorney’s Office said Tuesday the office weighing its options and there would likely be a new hearing to decide what happens next.
Prosecutors said the poem was one of three emails sent to the professor by Heineman, who also emailed another professor and the Inclusion Center for Community and Justice at Westminster College in Salt Lake City.
Heineman told an FBI agent said he was just expressing himself and didn’t mean to hurt the professor, investigators said.
His federal defender, Benjamin McMurray, couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday.
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