Supreme Court upholds PA man's conviction over Facebook post

Friday, September 29, 2017, Vol. 41, No. 39

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is leaving in place the conviction of a Pennsylvania man who posted violent rap lyrics on Facebook that took aim at his estranged wife, an elementary school and law enforcement.

The Supreme Court declined Monday to take up for a second time the case of Anthony Elonis. The court ruled in 2015 that a jury should have weighed Elonis' intent and not just the lyrics when convicting him of making threats. The Supreme Court then sent the case back to an appeals court.

The appeals court upheld Elonis' conviction saying no jury would have found that he didn't intend to threaten his targets or didn't know his targets would view the lyrics as a threat.