Commonwealth v. Walters
Annotate this CaseAfter a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of stalking, criminal harassment, restraining order violations, and perjury charges. At issue on appeal was whether Defendant’s act of posting on his Facebook page a photograph of himself holding a gun and the words, “Make no mistake of my will to succeed in bring you two idiots to justice,” constituted a threat within the meaning of the stalking statute, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 265, 43(a). The Supreme Judicial Court vacated Defendant’s conviction of stalking and otherwise affirmed, holding that the evidence of Defendant’s intent concerning the creation of the Facebook profile was insufficient with respect both to whether the page constituted a threat within the scope of section 43(a)(2) and to the reasonableness of the victim’s fear.
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