Anti-Choice Activist On Trial For 'Wanted' Posters

[PeaceNikki]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131094218&f=1001&sc=tw&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

November 8, 2010
In North Carolina on Monday, anti-abortion activist Flip Benham, who is charged with stalking and violating a new state law against residential picketing, goes to court.

He and his group, Operation Save America, put up Old West-style "wanted" posters targeting doctors who perform abortions. The group calls it free speech. Abortion rights activists say it's a threat.

...

In a similar case back in 2002, a federal appeals court found abortion protestors did violate a federal law that makes it a crime to use force or the threat of force to prevent people from accessing clinics. The court found that "wanted" posters were not free speech but a "true threat".

"Whether the historical context of wanted poster and subsequent act of violence by someone else other than group putting out the wanted poster — whether that is enough to meet the very strict legal test for a threat — is a very difficult legal case to make," says Lucinda Finley, a law professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

In this case, Benham is on trial for violating state and city laws — charges that are easier to prove. He faces just a couple of months in jail. But abortion-rights groups say they're pushing for federal criminal and civil charges that carry much stiffer penalties.

I corrected NPR's choice of words in the headline and am watching this case closely. Flip Benham is a hateful man who incites violence. He needs to be shown that inciting violence is not free speech.

[lillypaddle]

1. Thank you VERY much

for correcting the choice of words in the headline. Ank K&R

:applause:

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[uppityperson]

2. Thanks for the correction and the posting. Please keep us informed of what happens.

[musette_sf]

3. K&R

Defeat the domestic terrorists!

[PeaceNikki]

4. The ruling is in:

Benham was found guilty of two charges of criminal stalking with intent to cause emotional distress and disruption of domestic tranquility for residential picketing. Benham and his associates were ordered to stay 300 feet or more from wherever the targeted doctor works and 1,000 from his residence. Benham was put on two years probation. He plans to appeal.

[uppityperson]

Probation? "Stay away" is not enough for these murderous assholes.

[PeaceNikki]

6. Yeah, I agree.

x(

[uppityperson]

5. odd dupe, didn't tell me any error message even. huh