Free Speech or Threats?

Anthony Elonis contended at his October 2011 criminal trial that rap lyrics he posted on Facebook were intended as a form of artistic expression and that he never meant to threaten anyone.

After he was fired from Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom in Allentown, Elonis posted this reference to the amusement park's forthcoming Halloween Haunt:

"Moles! Didn't I tell y'all I had several? Y'all sayin' I had access to keys for all the . . . gates. That I have sinister plans for all my friends and must have taken home a couple. Y'all think it is too dark and foggy to secure your facility from a man as mad as me? You see, even without a paycheck, I'm still the main attraction. Whoever thought the Halloween haunt could be so . . . scary?"

He added another post around the same time, directed at his then-estranged wife, Tara:

"There's one way to love ya, but a thousand ways to kill ya,

And I am not going to rest until your body is a mess,

Soaked in blood and dying from all the little cuts."

Another post directed at his estranged wife said:

"Fold up your PFA and put it in your pocket. Is it thick enough to stop a bullet?"

An FBI agent later visited Elonis at home to ask him about the postings, and afterward Elonis took to Facebook again:

"Little agent lady stood so close, took all the strength I had not to turn the bitch ghost. Pull my knife, flick my wrist and slit her throat."

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