A federal appeals court has thrown out one of the convictions of former Fairbanks militia leader Schaeffer Cox. A Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision filed Tuesday vacates Cox’s conviction of solicitation to murder federal officials. The six-page ruling upholds a conspiracy to murder conviction and remands the case back to district court for re-sentencing.
Schaeffer Cox was convicted of both murder conspiracy and solicitation as well as weapons violations in 2012, and later sentenced to nearly 26 years in federal prison. His appeal argued before a three judge Ninth Circuit panel in Anchorage on August 15 took issue with how the jury was instructed in the case. It contends there’s no evidence of agreements or requests to kill specific government officials. Cox’s federal public defender declined to immediately comment, but Cox advocate Rudy Davis says he recently received a letter from Cox, in which he anticipated the split appeal ruling.
His appeal argued before a three judge Ninth Circuit panel in Anchorage on August 15 took issue with how the jury was instructed in the case. It contends there’s no evidence of agreements or requests to kill specific government officials.
Cox’s federal public defender declined to immediately comment, but Cox advocate Rudy Davis said he recently received a letter from Cox, in which he anticipated the spilt appeal ruling. Davis read a portion of the letter to a KUAC reporter:
“Asking my friends to agree to go murder with me. The asking is the solicitation count. The agreeing is the conspiracy count. What are the judges saying? My friends agreed to do what I never asked them to do? That’s silly,” Davis read.
The case prosecutor, Assistant US Attorney Steven Skrocki, said the conspiracy and solicitation charges involved separate actions. Skrocki said the solicitation charge involved Cox’s use of a militia security team outside a North Pole radio station, while the conspiracy charge was related to Cox and fellow militia members agreeing to a plan targeting a list of government officials.
“So to try to argue that because one fails that the other necessarily has to fail– in other words, the solicitation failed, therefore, the conspiracy failed– completely disregards that there were two separate offenses charged for two separate acts involving seperate victims,” Skrocki explained. “So that arguement really doesn’t make any sense.”
Skrocki said it’s unclear if the appeal ruling ordering re-sentencing will effect Cox’s jail time because the murder conspiracy and solicitation sentences are being served concurrently. Cox is jailed at a federal Communications Management Unit in Marion, Illinois. Cox’s advocate Rudy Davis said Cox intends to challenge the appeal ruling.
According to Davis, Cox wrote in a letter that another challenge is justified “because the evidence that still has never made it in front of a court proves my one hundred percent innocence.”
Davis and other Cox supporters have post excerpts from FBI informant recorded interviews in which Cox professed non-violence, but prosecutor Skrocki said such proclamations were interspersed with violent rhetoric.
“For every claim of a Gandhi, there was a claim of a Rambo,” he said.
Skrocki said the next step in the legal process for the Cox case is re-sentencing date, prior to which both sides will provide input.
Dan Bross is a reporter at KUAC in Fairbanks.
