...A convert to Islam who helped promote death threats against the producers of the animated television show "South Park" after it featured a character representing the prophet Mohammad will serve 11½ years in prison, a federal judge ordered Friday.
Jesse Morton pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy and two counts related to issuing threats in connection with actions after an April 2010 episode of the comedy. He asked the court for a sentence less than half of what he received, arguing he never tried to carry out the threats and since had moderated some of his extreme views to the degree that he hopes "one day help build bridges between the West and the Muslim World."
He apologized in court, the Associated Press reports, saying he "justified atrocities by Muslims simply because they were carried out by the weak against the powerful."
Regardless of Morton's current attitude, his actions in this case and through a radical website he helped launch inspired a host of others to plot terror attacks, prosecutors said. They will haunt the victims for the rest of their lives and stand to let threats silence public discourse.
U.S. District Judge Liam O'Grady seemed to agree with the prosecution argument that the threats will live on indefinitely for those targeted, and that a strong sentence is needed to stand against such brutal assaults on free speech.
"You were rubbing elbows with some of the most dangerous revolutionaries of the past few years," O'Grady said Friday, adding "there has to be religious tolerance in the world. There has to be freedom of speech."
Co-conspirator Zachary Chesser received a 25-year sentence last year. As he did with Chesser, Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg wrote a forceful sentencing memorandum for Morton detailing the perpetual nature of the threats conveyed.....
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