Jerry Dean McCoy v. Terry Stewart Grant Woods

We must decide whether words spoken by an admitted former member of a California gang to a group of Arizona gang members could properly be punished by state law or, instead, fell within the protective ambit of the First Amendment.

I

Jerry Dean McCoy was indicted in Arizona Superior Court on one count of participating in a criminal street gang in violation of A.R.S. § 13-2308, a class 2 felony. The prosecution alleged that McCoy, formerly a member of a California street gang called “Toonerville,” advised a street gang who called themselves the “Bratz” or “Traviesos” on at least two separate occasions on how to operate their gang: once at a barbeque at Bratz member Eddie Rodriguez’s house, and once at a party held at the residence of another Bratz member. A jury convicted him. The trial judge sentenced McCoy to fifteen years of imprisonment, citing as aggravating circumstances his criminal history and that he was on parole at the time of the offense.

McCoy then filed a direct appeal in which he challenged, inter alia, whether the evidence offered at trial was sufficient to sustain his conviction consistent with the protections of the First Amendment. He contended that the…