Militia leader in Alaska gets thumbs down from high court

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear the appeal of a former Fairbanks militia leader convicted of conspiring to kill federal officials.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports Schaeffer Cox’s appeal was among the more than 150 petitions to the court rejected without explanation last week.

Cox, an advocate for gun rights and the anti-government sovereign citizen ideology, was convicted of nine felonies by an Anchorage jury in 2012. The charges included conspiracy to murder federal officials, solicitation to murder federal officials and charges of owning and conspiring to own illegal weapons.

A federal appeals court overturned the murder solicitation conviction but upheld his other convictions last year.