A federal appeals court ruled today that neo-Nazi leader William A. White should remain in jail, calling him "a highly intelligent person apparently dedicated to having various persons killed."

The decision means that White, who is charged with threatening people by e-mail and online, will likely remain in the Roanoke City Jail until his case is resolved.

In an order filed this afternoon, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Judge James Turk, who decided in September to release White on bond.

Turk based his decision in large part on the testimony of a psychiatrist, who said White was not a danger to the community. An earlier evaluation by a different psychiatrist reached the same conclusion.

But in asking that White be held without bond, federal prosecutors have pointed to his writings on his now-defunct Web site, which he used as the primary outlet for his Roanoke-based white supremacy organization.

White wrote in one post of fighting the urge every morning to "kill, kill, kill." In another passage on overthrow.com, he described a "very intricate plot for the murder of about a score of Roanoke’s Negro nuisances and their annoying counterparts at The Roanoke Times."

White has been in jail for a little more than year — except for a five-day period between Turk’s decision and an emergency stay from the court of appeals sending him back to jail.

White is expected to raise a First Amendment defense to his charges.