Minister wins right to threaten judge with biblical curses
A Michigan appeals court on Tuesday overturned a ruling that had sent a minister to jail for threatening a judge with curses from the Bible.
The appeals court unanimously decided the Rev. Edward Pinkney's rights to free speech were violated when he was sentenced to jail for writing a commentary criticizing his trial judge.
In 2007, Pinkney was convicted for paying people $5 to vote in a recall election for a congressional seat in Michigan's 6th District that he lost. He warned that the Lord would smite the judge who sentenced him to probation with "consumption and with a fever and with an inflammation and with extreme burning," referring to a passage in Deuteronomy....