District attorney drops charges against activists who blocked coal freighter, says they were right
Wow. Plaudits for Mr. Sutter.
– In May 2013, two environmental activists piloted a lobster boat close to the vast pile of coal at the Brayton Point Power Station, the hulking plant that overlooks this industrial inlet near the border between Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
With the tiny boat, the two men – Jay O’Hara, 32, and Ken Ward, 57 – dropped anchor and for a day blocked a freighter with a 40,000-ton shipment of coal, and they were arrested and charged with conspiracy, disturbing the peace and other violations.
The two were scheduled to be tried on Monday, and they planned to deploy an old legal argument called the necessity defence: They had no choice but to act because the consequences of climate change are so dire. But instead of a jury trial, the major charges were dropped or downgraded by the district attorney, who said, in effect, that he was sympathetic to the defendants’ point of view on climate change.
Sam Sutter, the Bristol County district attorney who dropped the conspiracy charge and downgraded the others to civil infractions, strode out of the Fall River Justice Center clutching an article on climate change written by environmentalist and author Bill McKibben, who was prepared to testify as an expert witness for the defence. Sutter told more than 100 climate activists who had gathered outside that he had reached his decision in part because of environmental concerns.
“Climate change is one of the gravest crises our planet has ever faced,” Sutter said. “In my humble opinion, the political leadership on this issue has been sorely lacking.”
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http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/09/09/district-attorney-drops-charges-against-activists-who-blocked-coal-freighter-says-they-were-right/
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