Anthony Elonis - 18 U.S.C. §875(c)
Case Overview
In this case, Anthony D. Elonis was convicted for publishing a series of Facebook posts describing committing acts of violence towards various people in violation of § 875(c) (Wald and Milazzo). In May 2010, Anthony Elonis's wife moved out of their home with their two young children which consequently angered Elonis who then began posting on his Facebook page descriptions of how he wanted to kill his wife -- one such post, referring to his wife, stated: "If I only knew then what I know now, I would have smothered your ass with a pillow, dumped your body in the back seat, dropped you off in Toad Creek, and made it look like a rape and murder" (Larkin and Richardson). In October 2010, after having lost his job arguably due to another Facebook posting, Elonis's musings became darker and more vitriolic (Lempert).
Because of these and other statements, Elonis's wife was able to obtain a Protection from Abuse order against Elonis on November 4, 2010. The FBI began to monitor Elonis's Facebook posts after Dorney Park also claimed that Elonis had posted threats against their employees on the site. During the investigation, FBI Agents questioned Elonis at his home about his Facebook posts and after they left, Elonis posted the following on his Facebook page (Larkin and Richardson):
"So the next time you knock, you best be serving a warrant
And bring yo' SWAT and an explosives expert while you're at it
Cause little did y'all know, I was strapped wit' a bomb
Why do you think it took me so long to get dressed with no shoes on?
I was jus' waitin' for y'all to handcuff me and pat me down
Touch the detonator in my pocket and we're all goin -- BOOM!'"
The FBI used these statements to officially charge Elonis with the provisions of interstate commerce and the communication of a threat to injure. It is a federal crime to "transmit [] in interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing any threat to injure the person of another," 18 U.S.C. § 875(c) and numerous states have adopted analogous crimes (Wald and Milazzo).
Case Issues
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