Hurteau: Feds Drop “Deer Commander” Case After Supreme Court Ruling

Last week, the Supreme court struck down the Depictions of Animal Cruelty Act, a law that too-broadly prohibited trafficking in materials that depicts living animals being “intentionally maimed, mutilated, tortured, wounded, or killed.” (See previous coverage.) The ruling prevents antis from citing the law to attack hunting shows. And that’s great. But it has also forced federal officials to drop their case against the now-famous “Deer Commander.”

From an AP story via the First Amendment Center:

_The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Stevens has forced federal prosecutors to drop charges against an Illinois man who sold videos of himself running over deer with his reinforced pickup truck….

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that [Jarrod] Hayn, a former Illinois Department of Corrections officer, boasted on the video “Deer Commander: Sudden Impact” that he had killed more than 300 deer with his 1985 Dodge Ram….

__Though the high court’s ruling noted there are state laws against animal cruelty, Missouri officials say there’s nothing they can do to Hayn because investigators don’t know when the killings happened.

Officials said most of the kills happened in Illinois, which has a one-year statute of limitations for the deliberate taking of deer with a vehicle….

Hayn’s attorney, Ed Fanning, said even though charges against his client have been dismissed, that doesn’t mean Hayn is walking away unscathed.

“His family’s been devastated financially as a result of this,” Fanning told the Post-Dispatch.

Fanning said people were taking Hayn’s video out of context, but that the situation was partially Hayn’s fault. Claims that he had more than 300 kills are “a total, absolute fabrication,” he said.

“It’s all theatrics to try and sell these videos,” Fanning said. “I think he’s made himself out to be a monster.”_

Check out the full story and tell us your reaction?