The Virginia Supreme Court took an unexpected decision and overturned yesterday American AOL spammer Jeremy Jaynes’ nine year federal prison sentence. The high court ruled that the anti-spam law violates rights for free speech found in the First Amendment.

The law was declared "unconstitutionally overbroad," as it bans all unsolicited bulk email with false originating addresses, referring to both commercial and noncommercial. Sending unsolicited bulk emails is considered a felony if more than 10,000 recipients are mailed in a 24-hour window.

The entire incident with Jaynes began back in December 2003 when the North Carolina resident was indicted. In 2005 he was sentenced to nine years in prison and the prosecutors’ estimates at the time showed that he managed to earn close to $24 million in sales, money he partially used for a restaurant and also a chain of gyms. When the police first searched his home, they found a CD archive with more than 176 million email addresses and 1.3 billion email usernames. He used American Online servers based in Virginia's Loudoun County as part of his operation.

Even though Jeremy Jaynes is indeed guilty, people tend to have extremely different opinions with some in favor of the decision and others very upset.

"That statute is unconstitutionally overbroad on its face because it prohibits the anonymous transmission of all unsolicited bulk e-mails including those containing political, religious or other speech protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution," the ruling stated.

Jeremy Jaynes is not available for comments at this time and his official statement should arrive over the weekend.