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In reply to the discussion: Ted Nugent To Meet With Secret Service Thursday [View all]Caretha
(2,737 posts)for the SS and the courts to determine what is and is not a threat against the President of the US.
Tue Dec 23, 8:45 AM ET
U.S. National - AP - Yahoo!
ST. LOUIS - An appeals court has upheld the three-year prison sentence of a man who suggested that President Bush (news - web sites) might be set ablaze during the president's March 2001 trip to Sioux Falls, S.D.
Richard Humphreys, 51, was convicted in 2002 of threatening to kill or harm the president. He appealed, arguing his comment was a prophecy protected under his right of free speech.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (news - web sites) on Monday upheld the sentence and ordered Humphreys, who the court found suffers from a bipolar disorder, serve his confinement in a federal medical center.
"Hopefully, medication over a significant period of years will result in his being able to live outside the prison confines, free of delusions and the type of behavior he exhibited here," the court ruled.
Humphreys said he got into a barroom discussion with a truck driver a day before Bush's visit. A bartender who overheard the conversation told police that Humphreys talked about a "burning Bush" and the possibility of someone setting Bush ablaze.
It might be a good thing for Nugent too. He sounds like he needs medication.