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| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Animal Agitators Convictions Upheld |
| 2009-10-16 |
| A U.S. appeals court upheld the convictions of animal-rights activists charged under a terrorism statute with using their Web site to incite threats and vandalism against a company that tests products on animals. The 2-1 decision was the first federal appellate court ruling on a constitutional challenge to the law. Six members of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty were convicted at a 2006 trial in New Jersey of conspiracy to violate the 1992 Animal Enterprise Protection Act. The law, since revised, aimed to protect animal research laboratories from illegal, sometimes violent protests. The group was formed to protest the activities of Huntingdon Life Sciences in Franklin Township, N.J. The activists posted the home addresses of Huntingdon officials and contractors on the group's Web site, and harassment, vandalism and violence sometimes followed. In just one example raised at trial, Andrew Baker, chairman of a Huntingdon holding company, testified that protesters broke windows and threw smoke bombs into his Los Angeles home and also targeted a daughter's apartment in New York, plastering her door with pictures depicting his death. "While advocating violence that is not imminent and unlikely to occur is protected, speech that constitutes a 'true threat' is not," Judge Julio Fuentes wrote in the lengthy 3rd U.S. Circuit Court ruling issued Wednesday. The Stop Huntingdon group also endorsed "electronic civil disobedience", using technology to overwhelm company fax machines and computers. The campaign cost Huntingdon more than $400,000 in economic damage, the opinion said. "The record is rife with evidence that defendants were on notice that their activities put them at risk for prosecution, including the extensive use of various encryption devices and programs used to erase incriminating data from their computer hard drives," Fuentes wrote. The defense team will meet with clients to discuss whether to appeal the ruling, said Goldberger, who represents Joshua Harper of Seattle. Some of the other defendants were also convicted of interstate stalking. The group members were sentenced to up to six years in prison, and a few remain incarcerated. In addition to Harper, they include Darius Fullmer, Andrew Stepanian, Kevin Kjonaas, Lauren Gazzola and Jacob Conroy. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #2 Lock em up. |
| Posted by: Iblis 2009-10-16 21:33 |
| #1 It'a about time that the animal rights terrorists face real consequences. 15 yrs ago, some of them opened crates at dog shows and shoo'd the dogs towards the highway. Yeah, some were killed. The AR SOBs gleefully announced the dogs were better off dead than 'slaves'. spit The families that loved those animals were devastated. |
| Posted by: lotp 2009-10-16 20:18 |