Miami federal judge tosses U.S. case against Greenpeace

[Judi Lynn]

Miami federal judge tosses U.S. case against Greenpeace

by Ann W. O'Neill and David Fleshler
Staff Writers
Posted May 20 2004

A federal judge in Miami on Wednesday acquitted the environmental group Greenpeace of illegally boarding a ship to bring attention to its cargo, 70 tons of mahogany cut from the Amazon rain forest.

U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan ruled that prosecutors had presented insufficient evidence to send the case to the jury. He granted Greenpeace lawyers' request for a directed verdict of acquittal on the ship-boarding charge and a conspiracy count.

It was the first time a public interest group had been indicted for the protest activities of its members. Activist groups across the country were watching the case because of its potential to chill political speech.

According to testimony, two Greenpeace activists used a rope ladder to climb aboard the Jade on April 12, 2002. They and four others were arrested, spent a night in jail, and paid fines. More than a year later, federal prosecutors indicted Greenpeace itself.
(snip/...)

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/miami/sfl-cgreenpeace20may20,0,4867255.story?coll=sfla-news-miami

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A lot of people have watched this case with complete bewilderment from the moment we learned Ashcroft had made the move to use a rare legal oddidty from the 1800's to charge them.

This case has been knocking around for two years, and _Bush's administration claims it's going to try to get this overturned. Hope they'll lose AGAIN. This is a stupid, nasty, sneaky way to do bidness.

[NJCher]

1. YAY!!!!!

This makes my day....and it's only 5:55 a.m.!!!


Cher

[alphafemale]

2. That's a releif. nt

[LibertyorDeath]

3. Excellent !

[DaveSZ]

4. This is truly a great day for sailor mongers everywhere!

:toast:

[arwalden]

5. The Bad News Is They Were FORCED To Bear The Financial Burden Of Defending

themselves against a weak case based on a seldom-used obsolete law.

-- Allen

[Red_Viking]

6. Sounds like donation time...

Maybe we could all send a couple of dollars their way, in celebration.

Hooray!

:dem:

RV

[primavera]

7. Good point, I hadn't thought of that one

I was at first puzzled why Asswipe would bother with such a pathetically weak case, but if you consider it as an enervating tactic, designed simply to send the message to dissidents that they can expect to have to expend their scarce resources defending themselves from frivolous charges, that alone will up the ante and add an additional constraint to the operations of dissident groups. And since it's our taxpayer dollars Asswipe is spending, and he has no need to use them going after corporate crooks, polluters, or investigating government malfeasance, it's no skin off his nose to waste them on frivolous trials he can't win just to make a point.

[xchrom]

8. oh yeah! way to go, greenpeace!

[Bandit]

9. Well it looks like Fat Tony will get to give the Administration another

victory. If they send this to the Extreme Court look for the Administration to win.

[Zhade]

10. YEAH! Justice!

Fuck you, Ashcroft!

[Voltaire99]

11. Rock and roll!

Always nice to see the good guys win one.