By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
The Associated Press
(SEATTLE TIMES) A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the conviction of a North Carolina man who posted an anonymous threat on social media to lynch a Muslim-American political candidate from Virginia.
A three-judge panel from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Joseph Cecil Vandevere’s argument that a threatening tweet he directed at former state Senate candidate Qasim Rashid contained constitutionally protected speech and didn’t constitute a “true threat.”
The March 2018 tweet included a picture of a lynching and read, “VIEW YOUR DESTINY.” Rashid posted a screenshot of the threatening tweet and reported it to the FBI.
The panel upheld U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn Jr.’s refusal to dismiss Vandevere’s indictment and acquit him without a trial. Vandevere, 54, of Black Mountain, appealed after a jury in Asheville, North Carolina,
convicted him in December 2019 of interstate communication of a threat to injure a person. Last June, Cogburn sentenced Vandevere to 10 months in prison.
Vandevere is serving his sentence at a low-security prison in Loretto, Pennsylvania, that has a minimum-security satellite camp and is scheduled to be released on Oct. 5, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons’ website.
