[Peace-discuss] triumph of ethics over law: "Maine Jury Acquits Peace Activists In Civil Disobedience Case"

[Stuart Levy]

>From the Bangor (Maine) Daily News:

    http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/01/8635/

People who'd been charged for occupying the office of
Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), to oppose the surge and urge
Collins to vote against the war, had been charged with
trespassing.  Three of the four represented themselves.

   “To be honest, I’m a little incredulous,” Freeman said after the
   verdict. “I thought there was a remote chance that we’d have a hung
   jury, but I didn’t expect this. The fact that this was a not-guilty
   verdict says something about the way the wind is blowing in this state.

and

   The key to the verdict was the great defendants,” said attorney Lynne
   Williams of Bar Harbor, who represented Kreps and Braun. “They were
   sincere, believable and honest. That, along with very careful jury
   selection, is why we have this verdict.”

   Williams said that Superior Court Justice William R. Anderson, who
   presided over the jury selection process but not the trial, allowed a
   defense-proposed question about potential jurors’ attitudes toward
   civil disobedience. Justice Michaela Murphy presided over the trial.

and

   “I think that the public in Maine is so disgusted with the war in
   Iraq that they demonstrated their disgust with this verdict,” said
   Almy, a Democrat. “And, that they are upset with [Sen. Olympia]
   Snowe and Collins for getting us involved in this debacle.”

and

   Almy, who praised Trainer’s presentation of the case, said the
   verdict most likely would affect whether his office prosecutes
   protesters arrested in the Federal Building in the future.

   “At this point,” Almy said, “we’re going to have to consider
   the precedent that this verdict sets and we may very well have to
   consider giving these cases to the U.S. attorney to prosecute because
   this state court case may preclude successful future prosecutions.

Neat, huh?  One rebellious jury can change the state's whole approach
to prosecuting anti-war protest cases like this.  They'll have to try to
convince the Federal government to pursue them instead.