After spending five months in jail, a Texas teenager jailed for making a terroristic threat on Facebook has now been released thanks to a $500,000 donation made by an “anonymous good Samaritan.”
Justin Carter, 19, faced third-degree felony charges and up to 10 years in prison for posting a violent threat on Facebook not long after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Carter was arrested and charged with making a threat and putting the public in fear of violence, according to his attorney, Don Flanery.
That “terroristic threat” Carter posted on the social networking site read: “I think Ima shoot up a kindergarten And watch the blood of the innocent rain down And eat the beating heart of one of them.”
He was placed in jail with a ‘sky-high bail,’ Business Insider reported, one that his family couldn’t afford to pay, so the family started a petition on Change.org that garnered more than 125,000 signatures. And thanks to an anonymous donation of $500,000, Carter walks free.
Though Carter’s comments came not long after 26 students and teachers were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Flanery believes he didn’t do anything wrong, and said that a simple joke — Carter did follow his comments up with a “LOL” and “JK” — was taken out of context.
“[Carter] has a First Amendment right to express himself on the Internet,” Flanery said on MSNBC’s “All in with Chris Hayes.” “He did not threaten anyone. He made a stupid comment. And the problem is, lots of people all over this country, young and old, make stupid comments. Are we going to prosecute all of those? Are we going to investigate all of those?”
Though Carter is out of jail now, he still faces a 10-year sentence. However, a plea deal of eight years has been offered.
Watch Carter’s father and Flanery discuss the threat on “All In” Thursday.
