Offering some hope that “reality” will prevail in a political climate seemingly bent on climate destruction, a Washington state jury on Wednesday failed to convict activist Ken Ward on two felony counts stemming from an act of civil disobedience against the fossil fuel industry.
The Climate Disobedience Center, which Ward co-founded, declared the mistrial “a resounding recognition of the threat of climate change,” noting that one or more jurors refused to convict Ward on charges of sabotage and burglary for breaking into and shutting down a Kinder Morgan pipeline near Anacortes, Washington last year. Alternately, they were persuaded by his argument that he had acted out of necessity, in defense of the planet.
According to the center,
“This trial was about climate change,” said Emily Johnston, who also took part in the October 2016 coordinated action that shut down tar sands pipelines along the U.S.-Canada border. “The prosecution presented only information about what Ken did on October 11, and Ken and the defense presented only information about climate change, so the only decision that the jury was making was which story mattered more. And the story of the climate crisis won.”
Activist Leonard Higgins, who faces trial for shutting off Spectra Energy’s Express tar sands pipeline in Montana as part of the same action, said he’s “excited to see that the jury recognized the integrity, honor, and patriotism of Ken Ward, and recognized that what he did was done for all of us.”
Ward was the first of the “valve turners” to appear in court and the trial was said to have “far-reaching implications for the widening pipeline protest movement and the intensifying crackdown against it,” particularly in light of the fierce mobilizations expected after U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders advancing the controversial Keystone XL (KXL) and Dakota Access (DAPL) pipelines.
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As Ward himself explained after the decision, “In five hours, the jury was unable to decide that with all of the evidence against me, including the video of me closing the valve, that this was a crime. I didn’t contest a single piece of the evidence, only presented my story and evidence of catastrophic climate change. This is a tremendous outcome.”
As it stands, there will be a conference next week to determine if a new trial will be scheduled. But as Steve Kent with the Climate Disobedience Center explained to Common Dreams, the fact of the mistrial gives “an indication that one or more jurors accepted the argument that the actions were taken to prevent climate harm, and so weren’t culpable. That’s important legally and will have ramifications.”
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