"In 1993, a man named James Scott purposely damaged a levee and caused a massive flood of the Mississippi River..

[riversedge]

2. It is a real interesting story.......

..........The theory was that James Scott must have created a gap in the levee by burrowing a hole and allowing water through.

The defence team refuted this claim and brought in two independent soil scientists who testified that in its condition at the time, the levee was destined to fail.

There had been several other levees just upriver from Quincy that had also failed and it was believed that the community effort to help save the levee by bringing in the assistance of bulldozers may have actually contributed to its breach.

It would take the jury only four hours to convict Scott of purposefully causing a catastrophe and sentence him to 10 years to life in prison.

It was decided that this sentence would run consecutively with his previous 10-year burglary sentence, making it a 20-year sentence in total.

Some believed this to be a harsh sentence, considering that Scott has no history of violent or sexual crimes, while others in town believed that justice had been served. ...................
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