19-year-old Justin Carter could face 10 years in jail for a Facebook comment his family says was sar

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When A Teen's 'Sarcastic' Facebook Message Goes Terribly Wrong

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/teen...ail-for-facebook-comment-2013-7#ixzz2YYibOGvx

On February 14, just two months after the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, an 18-year-old in Texas named Justin Carter was arrested.

Carter, an avid gamer, got into a spat with a fellow League of Legends player on Facebook. After being provoked and told he was "messed up in the head," Carter fired back with a startling comment:

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.

Carter's father says the next messages Carter wrote included "lol" and "jk" to imply he was kidding.

"It's incredibly inappropriate when you take it out of context for sure," Jack Carter, Justin's father, tells NPR. "It was a sarcastic remark in response to an insult."

A woman in Canada was alarmed by Carter's questionable comment and notified authorities. Carter's home was then searched (although no weapons were found) and his computer was taken. The teen spent his 19th birthday in jail; this is the first time he's been incarcerated.

A jury in Texas' Comal County charged the teenager with making a terroristic threat in April, which is considered a third-degree felony. That means Carter could spend ten years in jail for the Facebook comment. The judge also gave him an unusually high bond, $500,000, which his family can't afford to pay.

Carter's trial is beginning this month but in the meantime, the teen's father says his son has fallen into a deep depression.

"He's very depressed, he's very scared," Jack Carter said, telling CNN that his son feels like he'll never leave prison. "He's pretty much lost all hope."

And in an interview with NPR, Jack Carter painted a more gruesome picture of his son's experience in jail. He says his son has had "concussions, black eyes" and "moved four times for his own protection." He also says his son is nude in solitary confinement because of his depression.

Carter's mother Jennifer posted the situation on Change.org  and acquired nearly 100,000 signatures in support of her son's release. In addition, the Carter family has found a pro-bono lawyer to take on the case.

The trial will come down to this:

In a social media world where younger generations are learning to speak now and think later, how far does freedom of speech really go?

While Carter's father understands why authorities had to investigate his son, he doesn't feel an impulsive comment on Facebook should be this detrimental.

"He says he's really sorry. He just totally got caught up in the moment of the argument and didn't really think about the implications," Jack Carter tells NPR. "I miss my son. He's my friend. And I just want him out. Nobody's life should be ruined because of a sarcastic comment."
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If you want to know why people are making big to-do about this that they are, it’s because they know full well that they’d be in there with him.  We used to understand that young people said things they didn’t mean, that people leveraged abstraction to expel demons.  Euphemism.  We aren’t safer since we’ve adopted this “be terrified of young men” stance.  Demonstrably.

Shouting fire in a theater is frowned upon because it has lead directly  to loss of human lives; it’s not a “terroristic threat” in any case and it’s got nothing to do with this conversation.  That’s not why he’s in jail.

We can talk about what “could have happened” all ******g day, and that’s generally where people cap out, but just for novelty’s sake we can look at what did happen and what is still happening.  He said something dumb about murder, and now he’s in jail learning  violence from professionals.  God only knows what kind of man will come back out, but we know for certain who made him.

http://penny-arcade.com/2013/07/08
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Not funny to play like that especially with the over sensitive society we live in. But 10yrs is just wayyyyy too much punishment.
 
A woman in Canada, :smh:

Is all this even necessary?

"Terrorist threat"? Really. Suprised this is happening in Texas, usually it's California that has mindless government spending. As a taxpayer the resources spent on this "case" is absurd. Simple investigation, yes. Trial and incarceration? completely unnecessary.
 
hold up, this guy is forced to be nude in solitary confinement over something said on Facebook?

:stoneface: :smh:
 
Damb!

Indeed that was a stupid comment.. and he should get some sort of punishment.. but not 10 damb years in jail.. something like community service or some ****
 
10 years is OD.

But you can bet dude won't be talking reckless on the internet anymore.

How dumb can you be to make blatant offensive comments on a public forum.
 
If he had literally called up to a local school and threatened to shoot it up,then i'd understand them trying to hit him with some time (you just don't play like that).

The math he's facing just doesn't match what he did (which was indeed stupid).

They're trying to make an example out of this kid.
 
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First time I read this story it said that he did it on League of Legends now it's facebook?

Either way this is ridiculous. No telling what type of damage that time in jail has already done to him mentally.
 
Just when you were thinking you could say whatever you wanted to say, you were wrong!:rolleyes
 
he is too old to be making stupid comments like that on facebook.

that being said the punishment does not fit the crime
 
It sucks that he is in solitary and getting beat up in prison right now but no way he will get 10 years. Freedom of Speech has to win here. Hopefully after he gets free he can sue for false imprisonment or something.
 
This is dumb

"You're sick in the head"
"Yeah I'm going to shoot someone right now"

warrants a 500,00 bail and up to 10 years in jail?

:smh: :smh:
 
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