[Peace-discuss] St. Patrick's Four Found Innocent of Conspiracy

[Ricky Baldwin]

So by "circus-like atmosphere" the prosecutor means
the Bush administration and its hokey wars supported
by kangaroo Congress and judiciary that rule out the
highest law of the land?

I agree.  It must be quite difficult to do a good job
under such conditions.  (I have trouble anyway, but
others who normally do well must be under quite a
strain.)

Good news, yes.

Ricky
--- "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at uiuc.edu> wrote:

> [This is very good news.  I thought the government
> was going
> to win this one.  --CGE]
> 
>    Published on Tuesday, September 27, 2005 
>    by the Ithaca Journal (New York)
>    St. Patrick's Four Found Innocent of Conspiracy
>    Ithaca war protesters guilty of misdemeanor
> charges
>    by Nancy Dooling
>  
> BINGHAMTON, New York - Four Ithaca protesters
> convicted Monday
> of trespassing and damaging government property when
> they
> spilled their blood in a Lansing military recruiting
> office
> can continue peaceful protests “to their hearts'
> content”
> until they are sentenced in late January, a judge
> said.
> 
> But they were warned Monday by Judge Thomas J.
> McAvoy not to
> break any laws while protesting, something the judge
> said
> would land them in jail before they are scheduled to
> be
> sentenced Jan. 24-27. McAvoy turned down a request
> from
> Assistant U.S. Attorney Miroslav Lovric to put all
> four
> protesters in jail on Monday.
> 
> A 12-member jury said Monday that Ithacans Daniel
> Burns, Peter
> De Mott, Clare Grady and Teresa Grady broke the law,
> convicting them on two misdemeanor-level counts of
> trespassing
> and damaging federal property. The four could each
> get
> sentenced to up to one year in federal prison,
> though one of
> their legal advisers said a prison sentence of
> several months
> for each protester was more likely.
> 
> The jury found the four protesters, who represented
> themselves
> in court, not guilty of conspiring to impede a
> federal
> officer, the most serious of the four counts. A
> conviction on
> that count could have landed them in federal prison
> for up to
> six years.
> 
> Three of the four — De Mott, Burns and Clare Grady
> — were
> convicted of an additional count of trespassing.
> 
> William Quigley, a Loyola University law professor
> who was one
> of three legal advisers to the four protesters,
> called the
> jury's decision Monday a victory for dissent in the
> United
> States. “Given what the jury heard, the verdict
> was a good
> outcome,” the New Orleans resident said.
> 
> The verdict was a signal to the government that it
> overreacted
> with the conspiracy charge, Quigley said.
> Misdemeanor-level
> trespassing convictions are more typical convictions
> for
> protesters charged in federal courts, Quigley said
> after the
> verdict was announced.
> 
> The four had been forbidden by McAvoy to use
> international law
> as a defense, namely that what they did at the
> Lansing
> recruiting office was not a crime because they acted
> to
> prevent a larger crime — war with Iraq. But
> despite the
> judge's warning, protesters continued to try to
> raise the
> issue during their six-day trial.
> 
> The jurors, who deliberated six hours on Friday
> before
> returning to court Monday for at least 1 1/2 more
> hours,
> declined comment after the trial. The verdicts were
> announced
> about 11:20 a.m. Monday.
> 
> Lovric said afterward that he was not disappointed
> with the
> verdicts.
> 
> “The defendants are going to be held
> accountable,” the
> prosecutor said. Their jury trial last year in
> Tompkins County
> ended in a mistrial after jurors couldn't agree on
> state
> charges lodged against them in connection with the
> March 17,
> 2003, protest.
> 
> The four admitted they spilled their blood on the
> walls,
> floor, door and windows of the recruiting office.
> Blood was
> also poured on an American flag and other items in
> the lobby
> of the office. A recruiter testified that some of
> the blood
> ended up on one of his hands.
> 
> Lovric, who said he'd recommend jail time for all
> four
> offenders at sentencing, isn't confident that the
> protesters
> will refrain from further law-breaking.
> 
> “They think they have the right to do this if they
> choose,” he
> said.
> 
> Lovric praised the jurors for doing their job under
> what the
> prosecutor described as a circus-like atmosphere.
> 
> A courtroom packed with the protesters' supporters
> frequently
> burst into applause. Anti-war protesters armed with
> signs were
> present outside the courthouse on Henry Street
> throughout the
> trial. The judge cited Teresa Grady, Peter De Mott
> and Daniel
> Burns with contempt of court after they either
> failed to tell
> the jury who drew the blood used in the protest or
> brought up
> issues they'd been forbidden to mention by the
> judge. The
> judge has not yet decided on punishment for the
> contempt
> citations, which carry possible jail time and fines.
> 
> But Quigley defended the protesters' conduct.
> 
> “(Lovric) may call it a circus,” the attorney
> said. “We call
> it democracy.”
> 
> Copyright © 2005 The Ithaca Journal
> 
> ###
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