As death threats surge, First Amendment advocates struggle to say what's a crime and what's protected

• Death threats are surging against public figures and officials.
• First Amendment advocates struggle to draw the line between true threats and protected speech.
• Conflicting court rulings mean few cases are prosecuted and victims must fend for themselves.

As the first Black columnist at The Daytona Beach News-Journal, Michelle Ferrier wasn't shocked by hateful calls, emails and letters. She simply placed them in her "red folder."

But one persistent correspondent got her attention with vile manifestos full of slurs, predictions of a race war and a warning: "I'm coming for you."

"When you receive a threat like that, it's like a bomb dropping on your house," Ferrier recalled of the 2006 missive. "You don't know who to trust, who to turn to."

She went to the police, but they had neither the manpower nor the technical savvy to track down an anonymous perpetrator.