Austin Wallace, attorney and case manager at Imhoff and Associates, discusses  the crime of terrorist or criminal threats and the impact of social media in these types of cases and convictions.

What you will hear

1:05 Defining criminal threats and  terroristic threats

1:51 Penal code statutes

3:01 Misconceptions and general misunderstanding of the statutes

5:26 Consequences of conviction

6:45 Social media’s impact on convictions

9:02 Case examples

11:47 Advice 

Quotes

“Every jurisdiction in the country, every state, every county municipality, even at the federal level has criminal statutes that make it illegal to threaten violence towards other private citizens.” 

“I didn't mean, and I didn't do, it is not a sound defense.”

“Social media has changed things and so, what used to be a really difficult case to prosecute because it was he said, she said, is now way easier because of screenshots from social media posts or DM messages or threads of Snapchat or Instagram or Discord. That is hard, as attorneys, to defend against.”

“What was, prior to social media, just a high school beef is now being charged criminally as a felony.”

“So the rule of thumb that I like to apply to it is, Do not say anything to anyone else on social media that you would not say if a law enforcement officer was standing right next to you in person.”

Mentioned

Imhoff and Associates

California Penal Code 4.22

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