News / International
Man (25) pleads guilty to threatening to assassinate Obama
19 Mar 2013 at 11:42hrs | Views
A 25-year-old Alabama man, Jarvis Britton pleaded guilty to threatening to assassinate President Obama in a Twitter message.
A member of the anti-government militia F.E.A.R., Britton will be sentenced on June 20.
"Let's kill the president. F.E.A.R.," Jarvis Britton, 25, of Birmingham, Ala., tweeted on Sept. 14.
F.E.A.R. is an acronym for a national militia group called Forever Enduring Always Ready, which prosecutors said aspired to overthrow the federal government and assassinate the president.
Eight members of F.E.A.R., including active-duty members of the U.S. military, were prosecuted in 2012 for their role in killing a soldier and his girlfriend they suspected had betrayed the paramilitary group.
Threatening to kill the president, whether on a social networking site or via any other method of communication, is a crime punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Britton is by no means the only person to come under the scrutiny of law enforcement officials after making a threat against Obama on Twitter.
"The Secret Service is gonna be defenseless once I aim the Assault Rifle at Barack's Forehead," North Carolina resident Donte Jamar Sims, 21, tweeted two days before Obama campaigned in Charlotte.
Sims struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors that obligated him to wear an electronic monitoring device for six months and banned him from using Twitter or any other social networking site.
Alyssa Douglas, a 16-year-old high school girl from the Clarksville, Ohio, also found herself under scrutiny for targeting Obama with a menacing tweet.
"Someone needs to assassinate Obama ... like ASAP," Douglas wrote in September, which was followed by the hashtag "DieYouPieceOfSh--."
Douglas' tweet drew widespread condemnation on the site and attracted the attention of the Secret Service, which conducted an investigation into whether the girl posed a credible threat.
No charges have been filed in that case.
Britton, meanwhile, faces a June 20 sentencing hearing.
A member of the anti-government militia F.E.A.R., Britton will be sentenced on June 20.
"Let's kill the president. F.E.A.R.," Jarvis Britton, 25, of Birmingham, Ala., tweeted on Sept. 14.
F.E.A.R. is an acronym for a national militia group called Forever Enduring Always Ready, which prosecutors said aspired to overthrow the federal government and assassinate the president.
Eight members of F.E.A.R., including active-duty members of the U.S. military, were prosecuted in 2012 for their role in killing a soldier and his girlfriend they suspected had betrayed the paramilitary group.
Threatening to kill the president, whether on a social networking site or via any other method of communication, is a crime punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Britton is by no means the only person to come under the scrutiny of law enforcement officials after making a threat against Obama on Twitter.
Sims struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors that obligated him to wear an electronic monitoring device for six months and banned him from using Twitter or any other social networking site.
Alyssa Douglas, a 16-year-old high school girl from the Clarksville, Ohio, also found herself under scrutiny for targeting Obama with a menacing tweet.
"Someone needs to assassinate Obama ... like ASAP," Douglas wrote in September, which was followed by the hashtag "DieYouPieceOfSh--."
Douglas' tweet drew widespread condemnation on the site and attracted the attention of the Secret Service, which conducted an investigation into whether the girl posed a credible threat.
No charges have been filed in that case.
Britton, meanwhile, faces a June 20 sentencing hearing.
Source - NYDN
