What is scary is how close the jury came to aquitting the guy over some technicality, mainly if he was reluctant or not... Personally I think animal rights/environmental extremists are human-hating, sympathetic to terrorists even if they haven't committed terrorism themselves, if they agree with their causes, that's enough to make them seriously twisted - and there should be a lot stiffer penalties for any crimes done in the name of protecting animals or protecting the environment etc.
From: karousel
To: ACTION
Cc: ORABS ; anti-peta ; pet-law@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 1:09 PM
Subject: Bomb plotter found guilty
What is interesting in these cases is that the AR's are taking pleas and ratting on their fellow AR's. They'll cancel each other out.
wjf
Bomb plotter found guilty
He faces up to 20 years in prison for a scheme to damage targets that included Nimbus Dam.
By Denny Walsh - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, September 28, 2007
Story appeared in METRO section, Page B4
Eric McDavid, a 29-year-old self-styled anarchist with an aimless lifestyle, was found guilty Thursday in federal court of plotting acts of eco-terrorism in the Sacramento region.
The jury of seven men and five women deliberated 11 hours over two days and reached a verdict near the end of the trial's eighth day.
Following the verdict, U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott linked the Earth Liberation Front to the bombing campaign that was discussed by McDavid and three others.
"ELF is a loosely knit organization of environmental extremists who believe in committing domestic acts of terrorism to advance their radical ideology," Scott said.
The evidence at trial was that McDavid and his cohorts discussed the pros and cons of crediting the ELF in the wake of their actions, but had not firmly decided on that course.
Scott said prosecutors will ask that the maximum 20-year prison sentence be imposed on McDavid.
Sentencing is set for Dec. 6. McDavid will remain in custody. He has been locked up since he and two co-conspirators were arrested Jan. 13, 2006.
Lauren Weiner and Zachary Jenson were allowed to plead guilty to lesser charges and testified against McDavid. A status conference in connection with their sentences is scheduled Oct. 11.
The charges to which the pair pleaded guilty carry a maximum five years in prison, although they testified that they hope prosecutors will recommend far less.
But Scott said Thursday the prosecutors will seek maximum five-year sentences for Weiner, 21, and Jenson. 22.
Referring to the ELF, one of the prosecutors, R. Steven Lapham, said, "In some ways it's tragic that young people are going to pay the price when others encourage them. But you cannot take these guys lightly. We lost a $4 million veterinary school building just down the road."
Lapham's latter reference was to a 1987 arson fire at the University of California, Davis, that caused $4.6 million in damage to an unfinished veterinary medicine building. Authorities attributed the blaze to the Animal Liberation Front, a movement similar to ELF. Those affiliated with both movements are classified as terrorists by the FBI.
In post-verdict interviews, eight of the jurors, who refused to identify themselves by name, had comments generally favorable to the defense.
"The nail in the coffin was his lack of reluctance," one juror said of McDavid. "Not once did he try to back out of" the conspiracy charged in a grand jury indictment.
"If he had," said another juror, "we'd still be in there now" deliberating.
From notes sent by the panel to U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr., it was clear the jurors were confused about how to apply the evidence to the question of whether McDavid had a predisposition to violence.
This was a critical element in the trial, with the prosecutors arguing he was predisposed to the intended violent acts, even without the active role played by an FBI informer who was embedded with McDavid, Weiner and Jenson, and who was the government's key witness.
Defense attorney Mark Reichel argued vehemently that the FBI-supplied resources the informer, known only to the jury as "Anna," brought to the plot, plus McDavid's infatuation with her kept the group's plan for a bombing campaign alive and entrapped his client.
In an additional instruction on the law given to the jury Thursday morning, England recited five criteria that should be considered in weighing predisposition. He then told the jurors the most important of the five is "reluctance."
Reichel said in a hallway interview after the verdict that an important part of an appeal of the conviction will focus on England's instructions regarding entrapment.
The judge told the jury that "contact" between a government informer and a defendant in the context of entrapment is the first time the two discuss the charged crime. In this case, that was in July 2005.
Reichel contends case law says it means the first contact between an informer and a defendant. In this case, that was August 2004. At that time and before then McDavid was not disposed toward violence, the defense lawyer argues.
The jurors agreed that if the judge's instructions had allowed them to place the relevant time period from August 2004 forward, they would have acquitted McDavid.
"This was a good jury," Reichel said. "They followed the rules they were given. I think the rules they were given are wrong. It's not the law of entrapment."
McDavid was charged with conspiring between June 2005 and January 2006 to damage or destroy by fire and an explosive the U.S. Forest Service's Institute of Forest Genetics in Placerville, the Nimbus Dam and nearby fish hatchery in Rancho Cordova, and "cellular telephone towers and electric power stations" at unspecified locations.
At a news conference, Scott and Drew Parenti, the special agent in charge of the FBI in Sacramento, had glowing words for "Anna's" performance.
"Her conduct while undercover, as well as her testimony on the stand during this trial, were nothing short of remarkable," Scott said.
The jurors were not as impressed.
"Initially, I saw her as credible, but eventually her bias became apparent," one juror said, expressing the feelings of most of his fellow jurors. "We did feel a lot of times she was pushing."
About the writer:
a.. The Bee's Denny Walsh can be reached at (916) 321-1189 or dwalsh@sacbee.com.
