High court clears way for verdict in plot to attack Marshfield High School

The state's highest court has cleared the way for a verdict in the trial of a teenager accused of planning an attack on Marshfield High School, ruling that a judge misinterpreted whether Tobin Kerns could be convicted of threatening the attack.

Juvenile Court Justice Louis Coffin had said during Kern's October 2006 trial that he believed the 19-year-old could not be convicted of making a threat unless the prosecution could show he made it directly to one of the intended victims. The Supreme Judicial Court disagreed and, in a ruling Thursday, said Coffin's interpretation of that law could have led to "a wrongful acquittal of the defendant."