Is It Illegal to Make Hypothetical Threats

[tim987]

Is it illegal in America to make Hypothetical threats or talk about hypothetically breaking the law?
I've seen alot of reality tv shows where hosts have said "hypothetically if i want to kill ........." and some tv hosts said "im just being hypothetical here, i can break the law by .........."

[Mr. Knowitall]

If you present a threat in terms that it's going to be understood and believed, even if you couch it hypothetically, it could still be a violation of the law. ("If you keep doing that, you could end up with broken legs." "If this airport security line doesn't speed up, I just might go on a shooting spree.")

[cyjeff]

Agreed... depends on the context and how it is received.

Let's say that you get a divorce.

During a heated exchange, you say something along the lines of "Hypothetically, if I break into her home, kill her in her sleep, hide the body in a ravine somewhere and clean up the mess, this divorce all goes away, right?"

That would definitely be a threat... even with the word "Hypothetically" in front of it.