Nature of the Case
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Facts
D attended a public rally on the Washington Monument grounds. The crowd broke up into small discussion groups and D joined a gathering scheduled to discuss police brutality. The group was quite young, either in their teens or early twenties. D was 18 years old. D entered into the discussion after one member of the group suggested that the young people present should get more education before expressing their views. According to an investigator for the Army Counter Intelligence Corps who was present, D responded: 'They always holler at us to get an education. And now I have already received my draft classification as 1-A and I have got to report for my physical this Monday coming. I am not going. If they ever make me carry a rifle the first man I want to get in my sights is L. B. J.' 'They are not going to make me kill my black brothers.' D was arrested. D moved for a judgment of acquittal because D's statement was made during a political debate, that it was expressly made conditional upon an event -- induction into the Armed Forces -- which D vowed would never occur, and that both D and the crowd laughed after the statement was made. The motion was denied. The trial judge instructed the jury after the trial and before deliberations: “It is the making of the threat, not the intent to carry it out, that violates the law.” The jury found Watts guilty of violating the law. The appeals court affirmed. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.
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