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.
That’s not THE thing. That’s A thing that is related, sad, and irrelevant to how the Supreme Court operates.
Fwiw, Colorado is making great sides in redirecting mentally ill from law enforcement toward social services. Tons of room for improvement, but they’re wholly separate things, systemically.
You can demonstrate intent without an admission, and it doesn’t require intent to get a conviction for harassment. Stalking is different.