Court throws out conviction of man who threatened Md. Gov. O'Malley

Maryland's second-highest court has thrown out the conviction of a man who threatened in an e-mail to “strangle the life” out of Gov. Martin O'Malley.

The Court of Special Appeals overturned the conviction of Walter Carl Abbott Jr. last week, ruling that the Baltimore County judge failed to define “threat” for the jury or to tell jurors how to determine if the e-mail constituted a threat.

Prosecutors say the construction worker e-mailed O'Malley's official Web site in 2008 expressing anger at the governor's policies on illegal immigrants and writing that he would strangle O'Malley if he ever got close enough to him.

Abbott's attorney argued that his client didn't mean the threat literally.

The attorney general's office is weighing whether to appeal.

-- Associated Press