Did Neo-Nazi White go too far this time

Did Neo-Nazi White go too far this time?

He's = ranted before, but authorities pounce on William A. White on accusations of threatening a juror.

Associated Press | File 2002

Matthew Hale, the leader of the whi= te supremacist group World Church= of the Creator, was convicted in 2= 004 of soliciting a government informant to murder federal Judge Joan Humphrey Lef= kow of .

The Roanoke Times | File October

William A. White is charged with soliciting others to injure or threaten someone identified only as Juror A = in the Matthew Hale trial.

Related

Previ= ous coverage

Neo-Nazi fails to persuade judge to release him (October 23, 2008Roanoke white supremacist remains jailed (October 19= , 2008)
White's Web site closed by FBI (October 17= , 2008)

Docum= ents

Read the indictment against White handed down last week by a Chicago federal grand jury
(PDF, 17 KB)
Read the criminal complaint filed against White by t= he FBI
(PDF, 714 KB)
View overthrow.com postings presented as evidence by the government
(PDF, 485 KB)
Editors' note: These documents contains language that some readers might consider offensive.

From behind his computer screen, Wi= lliam A. White has called the Roanoke NAACP president a "n----- in need of lynching." He's written that Roanoke Times journalists should be dragged from their homes and hanged "1898 style = in the Market Square." He's described himself as both the commander of a white supremacy movement = and a depressed man with an urge to "kill, kill, kill<= /span>."

Federal authorities have been investigating White's online ranting for more than a year now.

But the only charge against him so = far comes from a federal grand jury in Chicago. Last week, White was indicted on a charge of encouraging violence against the foreman of a jury that in 2004 convicted a fellow white supremacist of soliciting the murder of a <= st1:City>Chicago judge.

White's modus operandi -- posting o= n his Web site personal attacks on the juror along with his home address and telephone numbers -- is similar to what he's done with his Roanoke targets.

So how did a Sept. 11 post about th= e Chicago juror lead to the jailing of a neo= -Nazi leader who, by most accounts, had managed to tiptoe along the boundary betw= een free speech and illegal threats?

It seems that White picked a fight = with the wrong person.

Although it appears he made no expl= icit threats, White's decision to target a juror exposes him to a charge of obstruction of justice, legal and First Amendment experts said in interviews last week.

"Even if it's not a threat, if= it does cause a clear and present danger to the operation of the judicial syst= em ... then that kind of speech can be proscribed," said Wat Hopkins, a communications law professor at Virginia Tech.

If someone tries to intimidate a ju= ror, the thinking goes, that's a threat not just to an individual, but to an institution.

"Not to downplay the other thr= eats at all," said Scott Sundby, a law professor at Washington and Lee University= who specializes in criminal law and juries. "But if we can't count on people to serve as jurors and render their honest opinions without fear, the criminal justice system itself beco= mes endangered."

Technically, White is charged with soliciting others to injure or threaten someone identified only as Juror A.= But a line in the indictment alleges that the solicitation was "on account= of a verdict assented to by Juror A," citing an obstruction of justice law that deals with jury tampering.

"The government certainly has = a plausible case" by taking such a tack, said Brian Levin, a California lawyer and criminal justice profes= sor who heads the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.=

Even so, White -- who at a bond hea= ring last week described himself as a tabloid journalist who mixes satire with mockery -- may seek some protection under the First Amendment.

At the hearing in U.S. District Cou= rt in Roanoke, magistrate Judge Michael Urbanski= said the charge against White raises some significant free speech implications.<= o:p>

"It is a very interesting legal issue as to whether the language used in this case constitutes a true threat," Urbanski said.

The judge cited two U.S. Supreme Co= urt cases that might apply to White's case, which will be tried in federal cour= t in C= hicago.

One case involved a Vietnam War pro= tester who declared during an antiwar rally in 1969 that he would not be drafted. "If they ever make me carry a rifle, the first man I want to get in my rifle sights is L.B.J.," he said, referring to then-President Lyndon Johnson.

The protester was convicted of threatening the president. The Supreme Court upheld the law but threw out t= he conviction, ruling that a "crude offensive" political statement is constitutionally protected free speech.

A second case cited by Urbanski goe= s to the issue of criminal incitement. In that case, the Supreme Court reversed = the conviction of a Ku Klux Klansman who suggested during a cross burning that vengeance be taken against the government for suppressing the rights of whi= tes.

The Klansman, Clarence Brandenburg,= was convicted under an Ohio law that made it illegal to advoca= te a crime or violence as a means of accomplishing political reform.<= /span>

In overturning that law, the court established a two-part standard for criminal incitement: The speech must be intended to incite imminent illegal actions, and it must be likely to produ= ce such a result.

According to a written analysis by = Levin, the Brandenburg decision provides significant prot= ection to online extremists such as White, as long as they keep their advocacy abstract.

The indictment charging White does = not cite an explicit threat. On Sept. 11, White posted to his Web site, overthrow.com, an article that read in p= art "Gay anti-racist [Juror A] was a juror who played a key role in convic= ting Matt Hale," according to the indictment.

Hale was convicted in 2004 of solic= iting a government informant to murder federal Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow.

Federal prosecutors argued at the t= ime that Hale was angry at the judge for ruling against him in a trademark infringement lawsuit over the name of his white supremacist organization. H= ale was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Years later, White took up the caus= e of his fellow neo-Nazi, arguing on overthrow= .com that Hale was railroaded by a jury made up of "homosexuals, Jews and Negroes."

By making the jury foreman's wherea= bouts known to an Internet audience that "at times engaged in acts of violen= ce directed at non-whites," White intended for someone to act on the information, federal authorities contend.

Much of the seven-page indictment a= gainst White details other near-threats and death wishes against people whose activities would offend his neo-Nazi philosophies.

In one case, after posting the home address of author and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, White appeared to be pleased that one of his followers assaulted the man.

"I can only say that I hope to inspire a hundred more young white people to sacrifice themselves for our collective racial whole," White wrote in a post that ended "Heil Hitler" on Feb. 21.

Federal prosecutors have also cited White's call to "Lynch the Jena 6," a reference to six black teenagers charged with assault in Jena, La., and an image posted to overthrow.com that puts presidential can= didate Barack Obama in the cross hairs of an assassin's rifle.

"Does the government have the = right to show these horrendous statements on the Web site?" Levin said. "Yes, if it is to establish a motive. But they won't have unbridled authority to throw everything in. They will have to connect it to how the B= ill White movement operates."

But, he added, "We don't have = to look at this in a vacuum."

"If a Mafioso calls someone an= d uses a code word, or says somebody might get 'whacked'... that could be construe= d as some kind of a threat or interference."

White, a 31-year-old landlord who c= alls himself the commander of the Roanoke-based American National Socialist Work= ers Party, was arrested Oct. 17. His attorney, William Cleaveland, said he plan= s to appeal Urbanski's decision to hold his client without bond. If that decision stands, White will be transferred to Chicago to await trial.<= /p>

If convicted, he faces up to 10 yea= rs in prison,

In finding that White poses a dange= r to the community, Urbanski cited a post in which White wrote that he had devel= oped an "intricate plot for the murder of about a score of Roanoke City's Negro nuisances and their annoyi= ng counterparts at The Roanoke Times."

Brenda Hale, the former NAACP presi= dent who was the target of White's "lynching" post, said she breathed a sigh of relief last week to learn that ov= erthrow.com was down and White was in jail.

Hale said she worried about not jus= t what White might do, but about his followers. "He had a direct effect on pe= ople who had hatefulness in their hearts," she said.

During the bond hearing, White atte= mpted to convince Urbanski that he meant no harm to anyone, that his posts were nothing more than tabloid news full of "fantasy and half-truths and make-believe."

Over the past year, federal authori= ties have been monitoring White's online rants and making printouts. It's possib= le he could face additional charges; a federal grand jury in = Roanoke has been hearing testimony, accord= ing to two sources not involved in the investigation but with personal knowledge of the proceedings.

Observers are watching closely to s= ee what effect White's arrest might have on both the ANSWP and its leader, described by one hate watch group as perhaps "the loudest and most obnoxious neo-Nazi leader in America."

Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty = Law Center, an Alabama group that monitors hate groups, s= aid White's arrest also could mark the end of an era. Other white supremacy gro= ups, including Hale's World Church= of the Creator, the National Allia= nce and the Aryan Nations, have all fallen on hard times in recent years.<= /o:p>

As gratifying as that might be, Pot= ok said, the danger is that the leaders of those organizations had been able, = at least to some degree, to rein in illegal activity by their followers.<= /o:p>

"It's worrying when you have a= whole lot of angry white supremacists running around with no leader," Potok said.

jobs.roanoke.com| homes.roanoke.= com| cars.roanoke.com

.....Adv= ertisement.....