Authorities say she echoed words connected to the murder when she allegedly said "delay, deny, depose, you people are next".

Summary

Briana Boston, 42, was charged with threatening a health insurance company after repeating words linked to the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

During a recorded call with Blue Cross Blue Shield about a denied claim, Boston said, “Delay, deny, depose, you people are next,” echoing phrases engraved on bullet casings at Thompson’s murder scene.

Authorities allege she exploited the CEO’s homicide to make the threat.

Boston, a mother of three with no prior criminal record, was arrested and held on $100,000 bail amidst warnings of potential copycat incidents targeting healthcare executives.

  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16·
    8 days ago

    Before you continue to bitch about “true threat”…

    you should probably go back and read the article again. This isn’t a 1A issue. She was not somehow prevented from her speech (that is the threat,) and was quite successful in delivering that speech.

    Boston is being charged under Florida law. specifically statute 836.10.2b which makes it illegal to:

    (2) It is unlawful for any person to send, post, or transmit, or procure the sending, posting, or transmission of, a writing or other record, including an electronic record, in any manner in which it may be viewed by another person, when in such writing or record the person makes a threat to:

    (a) Kill or to do bodily harm to another person; or
    (b) Conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism.

    Again, her first amendment rights were never violated.

    another statute that may be of significance here is 836.5, which makes it illegal to issue a threat for the purpose of extorting money (or other gains).

    Edit to add: the threat doesn’t need to be serious, and not having a firearm doesn’t make it okay to threaten people. Is it dubious she had the physical ability to conduct the threat? absolutely. Was it stated in a moment of frustration and anger? certainly. Do I completely understand and sympathize with that anger? fucking absolutely.

    however. She still issued a threat. which, if you don’t want cops showing up at your door, don’t issue a threat to someone whose just doing their job- even if their job is to railroad you and deny medical care; on a recorded phone call. and then don’t admit to it to the cops, and then continue saying shit like “they’re evil” and “They deserve karma”

    of fucking course she got arrested.

    To any one reading this, here’s the best free legal advice anyone can give you: SHUT THE FUCK UP. When the cops knock on your door. they are INVESTIGATING YOU. shut the fuck up and get a lawyer. Don’t admit to anything. don’t continue blathering on about how “they deserve it”. That’s how you get arrested. Boston literally did their work for them.

    edit 2: you might want to look at the MTSU article you dropped. It states it rather plainly:

    True threats constitute a category of speech — like obscenity, child pornography, fighting words, and the advocacy of imminent lawless action — that is not protected by the First Amendment and can be prosecuted under state and federal criminal laws. The speaker need not actually intend to carry out the threat, but the prosecution must prove that he or she intended to communicate a threat. Cases that have reached the Supreme Court in recent years have involved threats made over social media.

    (emphasis mine)