Maine Jury Says It's Legal to Protest an Illegal War

[babylonsister]

Maine Jury Says It's Legal to Protest an Illegal War

By Penny Coleman, AlterNet. Posted May 31, 2008.

snip//

But first, the bad news. The bad news is that this hopeful story -- one that illustrates a constructive and effective direct action for change -- was reported only in the Bangor Daily News. Period.

The good news, which that paper reported on April 30, is that six peace activists were acquitted on charges of criminal trespass for failing to obey a police request that they abandon their sit-in outside U.S. Sen. Susan Collins' office in the Margaret Chase Smith Federal Building in Maine.

The defendants, Doug Rawlings, Henry Braun, Jimmy Freeman, Dud Hendrick, Rob Shetterly and Jonathan Kreps -- dubbed the Bangor Six -- were arrested in March 2007 for protesting Bush's proposed troop escalation and Collins' continued support of funding for the war. According to Rawlings, "Our case was pretty simple: We argued that we believed we had a right and an obligation to stay in that federal building until Collins heard us out and agreed that the war is not only immoral but illegal under international law." Specifically, they based their defense on the First Amendment's "right of the people ... to petition the Government for redress of grievances," and their belief that the war is being pursued in defiance of Article VI of the Constitution ("all treaties made ... under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby"), the Nuremberg Principles and the Geneva Conventions.

After a two-day trial in Penobscot County Superior Court, a jury of 12 citizens agreed and brought back a verdict of "not guilty."

Though Judge Michaela Murphy explicitly instructed the jury to set aside their feelings about the war and only deliberate on the evidence presented during the trial, she did allow jurors to consider whether or not the defendants believed that they had the "license and privilege" to consciously choose to break Maine law because they thought international law was being violated. The jurors decided unanimously that the protesters did, in fact, believe they had that right.

more...

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/86568/?page=entire

[PuraVidaDreamin]

1. Important Ruling!

In that if Bush does anything to Iran- I'll be handcuffing myself to a certain
congress persons office furniture.

[glowing]

2. kick.. yeah.. its happening little by little.. we are taking back this country..

[fight4my3sons]

3. thanks for posting this!

k&r