Fairbanks Militia Leader Schaeffer Cox Sends Out Letter from Jail

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By Sam Friedman - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner / sfriedman@newsminer.com

Story Created: Aug 4, 2012 at 12:12 PM AKDT

Story Updated: Aug 4, 2012 at 12:13 PM AKDT

FAIRBANKS — The criminal charges against him are false, but they might be God’s punishment for being too prideful, Fairbanks militia leader Schaeffer Cox wrote in a letter from jail that is being circulated among Cox’s friends and supporters in anticipation of a sentencing hearing next month.

Cox was convicted by a Anchorage jury in June of privately conspiring to kill government employees while publicly challenging the breadth of state and federal governmental authority. He faces a sentence of up to life in prison.

The sentence will be in the hands of a federal judge next month in Anchorage. His letter, which is addressed to his friends and family, was sent out Friday as an email news bulletin to members of University Baptist Church, where Cox’s father is the pastor. Church member Richard Neff is collecting letters from Cox’s friends asking the judge for leniency.

The letter takes the form of a spiritual confession and apology.

“To be passionate and full of zeal is good, but I was foolish and full of pride,” Cox wrote. “In my foolish pride, I got on my soapbox to wag my finger at the government for every little thing they did wrong. I taunted them until they had enough and manufactured a case against me. While the criminal charges that were brought by man are lies, the spiritual charges brought before God are true,” he said.

Cox was a political candidate in Fairbanks in 2008 and during the next few years drew crowds of hundreds in Fairbanks and Western states. As part of the sovereign citizens movement, he renounced his U.S. citizenship and created a number of institutions, including the Alaska Peacemaker’s Militia, that he said could keep order if the U.S. government fell.

In his letter from jail, he goes on to say it was foolish for him to try to change the world.

“It was stupid of me to think the root problem of our national and individual moral decay could be fixed if the government obeyed the Constitution. And it was double-stupid for me to think that I, through my own efforts, could make a difference,” he wrote.

He asked his friends to pray that “God would bring the truth out in this case so (he can) be reunited with his family.”

Contact Fairbanks Daily News-Miner staff writer Sam Friedman at 907-459-7545. Follow him on Twitter, @FDNMcrime.

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Don said on Sunday, Aug 5 at 10:27 AM

He's real cute.They're gonna like him federal prison for life.

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TedtheBear said on Sunday, Aug 5 at 7:35 AM

RJS, First Amendment rights ends you shout fire in the crowded theater. First Amendment does not allowed you to threaten anyone of harm especially when people whom you threaten take your words seriously. I don't understand why people like you think that the Bill of Rights is some form of unlimited rule where you can do anything you want. Everything got limits, even your rights got limits. Mr. Cox according to himself, don't considered himself to be a US Citizen anymore so he got nothing coming but deportation after he gets out of jail...common fate for illegals.

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KO said on Sunday, Aug 5 at 12:09 AM

Lets hope the system keeps working in order to never release this syco wacko back into society again'

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Wes Craske said on Saturday, Aug 4 at 11:27 PM

Here is a young man in trouble for foolish behavior. He is wrong in saying that he (or anyone), can't change the world. He is right that the government is out of hand and is exceeding its bounds. Where we differ is that I believe in the ballot box. I've not only ben involved in a number of initiatives, I've seen many others passed or not. We al lose if we start shooting at each other.

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R.J.S. said on Saturday, Aug 4 at 11:17 PM

Life in prison? REALLY? The last I checked, the First Ammendment has not as yet been repealed. This has the appearance of a travesty. Our system of justice is founded on the principal that there must be proof of injury or criminal wrong doing. Basically stating, harm or injury, not the assumption that harm may come to one. If my neighbor threatens to shoot me, how would one prove accident or injury when none has occured? I feel for this young man in that to be overzealous, in publicly complaining about the government and being arrested for said statements, is grounds for great alarm throughout our nation and WE ALL SHOULD BE IN FEAR. Our forefathers warned of these things that are now comming to fruition. May God bless us that keep the faith, and utilize the ballot and soap box so as to avoid having to use the cartridge box.

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JustUs for All said on Saturday, Aug 4 at 9:12 PM

What a cry baby and now whining away to spend the rest of his life in jail. Laws are meant to be kept by US citizens.

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Steve said on Saturday, Aug 4 at 5:51 PM

Shame we cant just shoot traitors anymore... Especially since that is what he believes in... Under his own law/ruling/belief he should be shot.

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really said on Saturday, Aug 4 at 4:36 PM

he is no more dangerous than a occupy wall street nut case and how many of them got screwed like him?

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BS said on Saturday, Aug 4 at 4:34 PM

didnt know BS was illegal in alaska

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JacOlBe said on Saturday, Aug 4 at 3:07 PM

Anybody have his wife's phone number?

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TedtheBear said on Saturday, Aug 4 at 2:04 PM

Since he gave up his US citizenship, can we deport this illegal out of this nation once he finished out his long prison term??

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