Criminal Law death threat over the phone?

[jonshah]

Over this past weekend I was out at a bar and my friend got into a shoving match with my cousin. Later that evening while I was with my friend, I got a voice mail message from my cousin saying that he was going to come to my friends house and kill him. The exact wording was something like "I don't want you to get hurt, so don't go to his house. I made phone calls already, tomorrow night he is going to die. Tell him to move out if he wants to live."

Now my cousin is threatening to press charges for battery, and my friend is debating whether or not to press charges for the death threat. My cousin also is not a US citizen(he's on a green card) if that makes any difference.

Acting as the mediator of sorts between the two of them, my cousin feels as though he cannot get charged with any crime for the phone call since he left it on my phone and since he was not threatening me, it was an indirect threat, though I'm sure it can be proven that he left the message under the assumption that I would have my friend listen to it.

So what I'm wondering is if my friend has any legal ground to stand on if he wants to press charges for the phone call?

 

[iwannahelpu]

heya jon

A few questions. Did your friend keep a copy of the recorded message? If so, he would have a decent case for pressing charges. Please let me know what has transpired since your last submission.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Over this past weekend I was out at a bar and my friend got into a shoving match with my cousin. Later that evening while I was with my friend, I got a voice mail message from my cousin saying that he was going to come to my friends house and kill him. The exact wording was something like "I don't want you to get hurt, so don't go to his house. I made phone calls already, tomorrow night he is going to die. Tell him to move out if he wants to live."

Now my cousin is threatening to press charges for battery, and my friend is debating whether or not to press charges for the death threat. My cousin also is not a US citizen(he's on a green card) if that makes any difference.

Acting as the mediator of sorts between the two of them, my cousin feels as though he cannot get charged with any crime for the phone call since he left it on my phone and since he was not threatening me, it was an indirect threat, though I'm sure it can be proven that he left the message under the assumption that I would have my friend listen to it.

So what I'm wondering is if my friend has any legal ground to stand on if he wants to press charges for the phone call?

The gist of this all is that I don't think anything will become of the threats and shoving match at this point. They can all threaten each other with lawsuits but who will pay or take the time to try to push the agenda after it died down? If it was to be taken seriously then they should have acted immediately. What I really think you might want to consider is letting each of them know that the dispute has escalated to the boiling point where someone is going to get hurt during the next encounter. It will cost them both needless time and money and potentially could eventually land one or both of them in jail. I won't bother discussing the technicalities of the law since the practicality is that it won't get there... at least the way it seems from what you wrote.