NORTH BERGEN — The U.S. Supreme Court justices on Monday will discuss whether or not to consider overturning the conviction of a North Bergen "shock jock" who allegedly threatened to kill three federal judges in 2009.

It's been nearly four years since Hal Turner was sentenced to 33 months in prison for writing on his website that three Chicago judges who upheld a handgun ban "deserved to be killed." After a federal appeals court upheld his 2010 conviction, Turner took his appeal to the country's highest court, claiming that the conviction violated his First Amendment rights.

“I uttered a nasty opinion and got thrown in prison for it,” Turner said on Friday. “This goes directly to freedom of speech and the citizen's ability to criticize public officials,”

The justices will review several petitions during a closed conference on Monday to determine what cases will be heard in court. Turner's attorney, Richard Dolan, said that if the justices don't grant the petition, the case may still have a chance.

Dolan said the court could hold the petition until after it hears a similar case, Elonis v. United States. The case questions whether prosecutors must prove a person's "intent to threaten" in order to convict or if they just must just show that a "reasonable person" would feel threatened by the person's actions.



"The law has always distinguished a threat on one hand and an incitement to act on the other," Dolan said. "There is some crazy stuff on the Internet. If that's a crime, there may be some fairly large consequences."

U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. filed an opposition to Turner's petition in June, arguing that Turner "expressly" threatened the three Chicago judges. The judges saw Turner's posts and feared for their safety, the response stated, especially with Turner's mention of the 2005 murders of U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow's husband and mother. He wrote: "Apparently, the 7th U.S. Circuit

court didn't get the hint after those killings," according to court documents.

"Petitioner expressly called for the murders of the three judges and claimed that his doing so was sufficient 'to get it done,'" Verrilli's response states. "Any reasonable person would interpret those statements, viewed in context, as a true threat."

Turner spent 28 months in prison and four and a half months in a halfway house. He is banned from owning a website or working on radio until he is no longer under supervised release, which ends in October 2015.

He said his criminal conviction has robbed him of his livelihood and passion. He said he's been on radio since 1998, and he began his own website and broadcast, the "Hal Turner Show," in 2000, both now defunct.



Turner said he's hopeful that the Supreme Court will take his case, but he admitted that it's "a long shot."

“The odds are against me, but the issue is important," he said. "If we can be thrown in prison for criticizing our government, then none of us is safe."

Kathryn Brenzel may be reached at kbrenzel@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @katiebrenzel. Find NJ.com on Facebook.