Reply #20: Remember Brett Bursey?

[IkeWarnedUs]

He was arested for refusing to leave a restricted area at Columbia Metropolitan Airport during President Bush's visit on October 24, 2002.

Bursey's lawyers are arguing that there was no designated free-speech zone at the airport and police kept moving Bursey and other protesters farther away so the president wouldn't see them. In June the trial was delayed because the Defense argued the Prosecutors must prove that Bursey planned to engage in violence, block access to a building or grounds, or "disrupt the orderly conduct of government business". Bursey's charge of "entering a restricted area around the president of the United States", doesn't meet any of the criteria. They are asking the charges be dropped.

In 1969 Bursey was charged with trespassing at the airport during a rally by President Nixon. The S.C. Supreme Court overturned that conviction on grounds that citizens cannot trespass on public property.

Bursey was convicted of defacing a military draft office in Columbia in 1971 during the Vietnam War and served nearly two years in state prison.

If the charges are not dropped the trial will continue November 12.

In the mean time, the judge gave the U.S. Attorney until September 12 to turn over all security memos, e-mails and other documents relating to President Bush's visit in October 2002 so he (the judge) could review them and decide what Bursey can use in his defense. I can't find anything about whether or not they made the deadline.