Supreme Court won’t hear Tulsa threat case
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to consider the case of a Connecticut man who claimed he was making harmless predictions when he sent threatening messages to Tulsa police following the shooting of an unarmed black man.
In September 2016, Jeffrey Stevens sent 10 messages to the Tulsa Police Department using an online form after the shooting of Terence Crutcher by officer Betty Shelby.
“The psychotic pile of (expletive) who MURDERED the unarmed civilian who broke down is going to be executed, as are ALL psychotic (expletive) bags you and other PDs hire across this Nation who murder unarmed civilians. They are all going to be killed," he wrote in his first message.
In another message, Stevens wrote that “unless the Prosecutor & the Judge deny bail, they too will be executed."
Stevens pleaded guilty in federal court to five counts of interstate communication with intent to injure and was sentenced to a year in prison. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his convictions. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court declined without comment to review the case.
Stevens had told the Supreme Court that his perceived threats were actually “Predictions of Civil Uprising” and must therefore be protected as free speech. He said his threats were in the spirit of a John F. Kennedy quote: "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
“I never once claimed that I was going to do anything to anybody,” Stevens wrote to the Supreme Court.
Under Supreme Court precedent, a threat is defined as a “serious expression of an intent to commit an act of unlawful violence” to a person or group of people. The 10th Circuit court found a reasonable person would perceive Stevens’ messages to be threats. They cited his last message: "Betty is not going to get 3 yeas (sic) probation and a pension, she is getting a bullet through her brain."
Stevens argued his location in Connecticut reflected an absence of intent or ability to carry out any threats but the 10th Circuit court ruled his threatening messages never stated he lived many states away and, even if they did, a reasonable person could conclude Stevens had the wherewithal to travel to Tulsa and follow through on the threats.
Stevens, 61, was released from prison on June 5, according to federal prison records. His sentence includes three years of supervised release.