The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out the stalking conviction of a Colorado man who sent hundreds of unwanted Facebook messages to a female musician, ruling that state prosecutors had not shown that he was aware of the "threatening nature" of his statements.
I am struggling to figure out how anyone could be convicted of stalking under this ruling. Some of his texts even involves death threats!
I would say that he did demonstrate that he was insane, and therefore should be confined to a mental health institution.
But that’s the thing. Are they going to…put him in a mental institution? Because he desperately needs to be in a good one. I would be much more ok with this ruling if he were. I’m getting the sense he’s going back to society where he will behave totally normally from now on.
I sincerely doubt they would just release him to the general population.
You can demonstrate intent without an admission, and it doesn’t require intent to get a conviction for harassment. Stalking is different.