Johnny Logan Spencer Sentenced To Nearly 3 Years In Prison For Threatening Obama In Poem

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Kentucky man who acknowledged threatening President Barack Obama in a poem has been sentenced to nearly three years in prison.

Johnny Logan Spencer apologized for writing the poem, which described a fatal sniper shooting of the president.

The 28-year-old said in federal court in Louisville on Monday that he was upset over his mother's death and had fallen in with a white supremacist group that had helped him kick a drug habit.

U.S. District Judge Joseph H. McKinley Jr. called Spencer's writing of the poem an extremely dangerous thing. Spencer will be on supervised release for three years after he completes the 33-month sentence.

The poem, titled "The Sniper," was posted on a website in 2007 and again in 2009 after Obama took office.

Comments

[tice]

04:06 PM on 12/07/2010

Johnny Logan Spencer was on parole for drug charges, missed his last parole meeting, tested positive for narcotics (did not specify) in his last drop, posted a hateful raycist poem about K'ing the P on a white supremacist website and ended up getting less that three years.

Here is the Secret Service agent's investigative report (poem included):
http://www.wlky.com/download/2010/0219/22615404.pdf

These are the statutes he was accused of violating:
http://trac.syr.edu/laws/18/18USC00871.html
http://trac.syr.edu/laws/18/18USC00875.html
http://trac.syr.edu/laws/18/18USC00879.html

The information presented in this article is sensationalistic and grossly misleading. Very disappointing are both the author and the uninformed responses to the article. Who's going to do your homework when I'm not around guys?

[Micah-R]

02:54 PM on 12/07/2010

If Obama wants to come out of this looking like a hero, he should pardon this guy, and show that he respects the rights of Americans. He would be praised as a supporter of the bill of rights, and someone who opposes the reverse discrimination seen in incidents such as this.

[Irving Brown]

04:35 PM on 01/04/2011

You're NUTS!

[Moonspirit48]

10:51 PM on 01/05/2011

Glenn Beck should be sentenced, also. No way should Obama pardon someone who is inciting his death. You are so mixed up!

[Moonspirit48]

10:52 PM on 01/05/2011

Sorry, Irving Brown, I fanned you. My reply was meant for Micah-R, but ended up as a reply to you. Very sorry about that!

[Rooster Coburn]

02:26 PM on 12/07/2010

How about showing us the poem so that we can decide for ourselves?

[gammik64]

04:48 PM on 12/07/2010

Please tell me you're joking ....right?

[Rooster Coburn]

07:37 PM on 12/07/2010

No, why would would I kid? Fair and balanced means fair and balanced.  Let the people decide.

[Moonspirit48]

11:01 PM on 01/05/2011

Kindly read the poem at http://www­.wlky.com/­download/2­010/0219/2­2615404.pd­f. But remember, he also was guillty of other charges not related to the poem.

.

[Alahna Robinson]

02:26 PM on 12/07/2010

No, you're wrong. Let me break it down for you: free speech has never covered things like this, and you have always been able to be jailed for threatening a president. This has nothing to do with his race, although I'm glad you brought it up - seems to me that you're more concerned about race than our president is.

[Irving Brown]

04:37 PM on 01/04/2011

Fanned!

[tice]

03:18 PM on 12/07/2010

Don't you realize how silly you sound making such comments with no idea what really happened?

Spencer did not get three years for writing a poem about killing the president. He got three years because while on parole, he failed a drug test, missed an appointment with his PO, AND had a charge for threatening the president. All of that together got him under three years.

Where's your head at? Don't worry, no one is expecting the rare HuffPo admission of incorrectness. You can slink away into the silence and this post will fade into numerous other misinformed rants found deep in the HuffPo archives.

[nsgo123]

12:32 PM on 12/07/2010

Give him a good long time to think about the choices he has made with his life...and maybe he'll finally get one. ( A life that is)

[Busbydav]

11:29 AM on 12/07/2010

Do threats in prose deserve a lengthier sentence than those in verse?

[ThirdSection]

01:53 PM on 12/07/2010

I think it depends on the rhyme scheme.

[progressivegreg]

11:09 AM on 12/07/2010

If this guy is getting 3 years for a "poem" what about blech and his wanting to poison Nancy Pelosi?

[Moonspirit48]

10:55 PM on 01/05/2011

Glad you mentioned that. Beck has incited people to kill.

[jyokley]

10:46 AM on 12/07/2010

GOOD ! Threatening ANY President should be seen as a threat against the country.

[Bystander]

12:28 PM on 12/07/2010

I agree!

[alexolife]

01:05 PM on 12/07/2010

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I think somebody should actually have done something before going to gaol. If Julian Assange can get hunted down across international borders because a fan fell out of love with him, I won't be surprised when this law starts being used against legitimate dissenters.

[Charlie Ham]

10:24 AM on 12/07/2010

3 years for a poem? dude needed a better lawyer! thats embarrassing USA

[MichelleB]

12:06 PM on 12/07/2010

Agree, three years seems to be too long for writing a poem, regardless of its content. Give him some kind of warning and make him clean up some public parks, not so clean ones, for a week, .

[exigent]

12:11 PM on 12/07/2010

there are very explicit laws against making public threats against the president, perceived or intentional.

[MichelleB]

12:32 PM on 12/07/2010

I say it is a Draconian law.

[sbirdog]

10:21 AM on 12/07/2010

I'm no fan of white supremecy groups, that is for sure and for certain, but jail time for a poem? I have to admit I don't know all the facts in the case but I'm sure that is the last of the 'hate' poems for a while.

[bensfiction]

02:37 AM on 12/12/2010

...its prison time for a death threat, not "jail time for a poem" please understand how our laws work

[Charlie Ham]

10:16 AM on 12/07/2010

there werent any poems written about george bush? i find that hard to believe, arresting people for poems, great

[sbirdog]

10:23 AM on 12/07/2010

Oh, I'm sure there were some hateful words about the Bushter somewhere.

[jyokley]

10:47 AM on 12/07/2010

There was more to the story than that....

[bensfiction]

02:38 AM on 12/12/2010

...and hating someone is apples and oranges to threatening their life

[freegeg]

10:08 AM on 12/07/2010

"William Sharp, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, which isn’t involved in the case, said: “If the government's prosecution is predicated solely on the poem, we believe that there would be a strong argument that the poem, despite its obviously horrific and racist imagery, would be protected speech under the First Amendment. The mere fact that authors write graphically violent imagery, even if born out of racist or otherwise repugnant beliefs, does not automatically remove First Amendment protections and justify criminal prosecution.”

[freegeg]

10:07 AM on 12/07/2010

Just read the poem. It never mentioned Obama. This is ridiculous. ACLU where are you? Thought policing is wrong.

[tice]

11:09 AM on 12/07/2010

1. It mentioned killing the black president. (you do the math)
2. There's way more to the story than the poem.

[gammik64]

03:07 PM on 12/07/2010

Now how many of those have we had ? It would be funny if it weren't so stupid, trying to defend a threat against the president with "oh it was art ...it was just a poem........yeah right!!

[sugarmoes]

11:22 AM on 12/07/2010

link?

[Tim The Enchanter]

09:55 AM on 12/07/2010

How many women are killed every year by men that threaten them in advance? They never go to jail. Why is it a crime to threaten some guy you don't even know, who has armed body guards and to whom you have no access, but if you threaten to kill your defenseless family, and that's just peachy?

[EthicalJournalist]

09:50 AM on 12/07/2010

Question: In this poem, did the man write that he intended to kill Mr. Obama? Was it a threat, or was it art? Bad art, perhaps, but art? I haven't read the poem, and don't intend to. I won't even read Stephen King's novels because of the gratuitous violence. But let's get real: If the man made a credible threat, then he needs to be sanctioned. If the poor slob was simply writing a poem to express himself, and posted it someplace instead of writing it with a pen in a notebook as people used to do before electronic media took over...is this really what a free society wants to do about people's artistic thoughts, however distressing they might be?