Man who threatened Bush loses his appeal

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- An appeals court has upheld the three-year prison sentence of a man who suggested that President Bush might be set ablaze during the president's March 2001 trip to Sioux Falls, S.D.
Richard Humphreys, 51, was convicted in 2002 of threatening to kill or harm the president. He appealed, arguing his comment was a prophecy protected under his right of free speech.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the sentence Monday and ordered Humphreys, who the court found suffers from a bipolar disorder, serve his confinement in a federal medical center.
"Hopefully, medication over a significant period of years will result in his being able to live outside the prison confines," the court ruled.
Humphreys said he got into a barroom discussion with a truck driver a day before Bush's visit . A bartender who overheard the conversation told police that Humphreys talked about a "burning Bush" .