A panel of 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges has reversed one of Fairbanks militia leader Francis Schaeffer Cox's convictions but affirmed others.
A six-page unpublished memorandum filed on Tuesday states Cox will get a new sentencing hearing. It's not yet clear whether the decision will affect his total prison sentence of 26 years.
Cox, 34, was a one-time Alaska Legislature candidate and leader of a Fairbanks gun rights organization until his arrest in 2011. He has advocated the "sovereign citizen" ideology that disavows the legitimacy of the U.S. government, although he has rejected the label as a pejorative term in writings from prison.
This week's appeals court ruling came less than two weeks after three appeals court judges heard oral arguments in Cox's case in an Anchorage courtroom.
Cox is serving his sentence at a federal prison in Illinois after an Anchorage jury convicted him in 2012 on charges including conspiracy to murder federal officials, solicitation to murder federal officials and charges of owning illegal weapons.
It is very unlikely that this new sentence will have any significant impact on Schaeffer's prison time.
If you want to learn more about this you can actually read a great new book about the case called "The Blood of Patriots," written by Bill "Dropzone" Fulton and fellow Alaska blogger Jeanne Devon.
It is a gripping tale, full of heretofore unknown details, and after reading it you will want Schaeffer Cox to stay in jail for as long as possible.
(You can order your copy here.)
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