U.S. v. Dutcher

Record contained sufficient evidence to support defendant’s conviction on charge that defendant threatened President Obama in violation of 18 USC section 871(a). Record showed that defendant drove to location where President Obama was scheduled to speak and told several people that he intended to kill President Obama and that it was his constitutional duty to do so. Moreover, defendant told individuals that he could kill someone with his slingshot, which he had in his car. Jury could view defendant’s statements as “true threat” to Obama, even though defendant argued that he was obviously unable to carry out threat, since: (1) jury could find that defendant was capable of injuring President Obama with his slingshot; and (2) record showed that first person to whom defendant communicated his threat took defendant seriously by quickly forwarding defendant’s threat to authorities. Ct. further found no error, where Dist. Ct. instructed jury that defendant acted “willfully” if he either actually intended his statement to be true threat, or that he knew that other people reasonable would view his statement as true threat, but he made said statement anyway.