Legal As She Is Spoke

By LASIS Staff

Eighty year old retired chemistry professor Julien Heicklin is happy that the charges against him for jury tampering in Manhattan were dismissed, though you might not know it from his master of understatement-esque reaction: “This is better than having them throw me in jail.”

According to federal judge Judge Kimba Wood, Mr. Heicklin is off the hook because he was trying to influence all jurors, for any and all cases, and not specific jurors for a specific case.  For that reason, Judge Wood didn’t even have to wrestle with thorny first amendment issues.

Back in March, 2011, LASIS did.

And though she threw out the charges on other grounds, Judge Wood’s decision is the win for free speech we predicted.