I would have lost that bar bet. I mean you saw them! They were on TV bragging about it. Not clear how a prosecutor could lose that case.
Jury finds all Oregon standoff defendants not guilty of federal conspiracy, gun charges
As a capper the Judge has his deputies tackle one of the defense attorneys.
Attorney Tackled After Bundys And Oregon Standoff Leaders Acquitted For Refuge Takeover
Me too. Don’t know much about the trial, though - was the prosecutor a failure, or did (some of) the jury know they were guilty and just not care?
Law and order, that’s what I like.
I wonder what would have happened if they had been black, assuming any of them lived to stand trial.
ETA: I hope the next time some armed assholes stage a violent protest, it’s in the neighborhoods of the jurors.
I’ll bet you anything it was jury nullification – they were sympathetic to the cause and wanted to stick it to the government. Assholes.
I honestly can’t remember ever being this shocked at a verdict. We’re talking an avalanche of evidence, and no conviction?
At least Finicum got justice. Too bad these 7 got away with it.
The more serious charges are in Nevada. Those assholes aren’t going anywhere except to a bigger prison. And their lawyer will be joining them there.
Conspiracy is a tough charge, and I don’t know why they went that way. It was rarely successful back in the 60s. They should have made the charges more direct to what went on.
I’ve read conflicting things: were they (4 of them) in fact charged with illegally having weapons at a federal facility and found not guilty of that? Because that one seems direct to me.
The only thing I can figure out is that the main charge was conspiracy to impede federal officials where as the conspiracy was to take over the refuge and “return it to the people.” Impeding the refuge employees was sorta a side effect.
Something like that.
The prosecutors really dropped the ball here, these militia types are only going to be emboldened by this outcome. :smack:
I could see that being the case if this was in the state court in Harney County, but this was in a federal district court for the entire state, so the jury would likely be mostly Portland-area residents.
Maybe some of the jurors had previous dealings with the BLM, the real one, ‘Bureau of Land Management’ and know them first hand. Good guys they are not. Been there, done that.
I am not a one of those rah, rah fight the man type of people stocking stuff in the woods & wearing camo but the government is not here or there to help the citizen.
Hope it goes that well for them in the Nevada courts too.
I hope all of the Dakota Pipeline protesters who have been jailed get as sympathetic jurors.
I’m guessing since they (the NoDAPL protesters) aren’t getting the same treatment as the Bungies (bouncing here and there violently) did that they won’t get off as lightly:
Yeah! Shame on them for enforcing the laws on public land!
Well, at the beginning of deliberations, a juror who had previously been a BLM employee was dismissed when the judge was handed a pointed note from the jury stating (paraphrasing) that the ex-BLM juror began a sentence with “Well, I’m biased but…”
Well, at least now the Bundys can begin their search for the real conspirators.
I’m afraid you’re right. Several of them are still facing charges from the 2014 cattle-grazing standoff, though.
Here’s CNN’s coverage: http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/27/us/oregon-standoff-ammon-bundy-acquittal/?iid=ob_article_organicsidebar_expansion
I assume Oregon and/or Nevada also has criminal jurisdiction over some of this, and a prosecution by the state is not barred by the failed federal prosecution.
Hopefully they’ll try to get them on some state crimes.
Doubtful. About the best they could do would be to haul them in for stalking and intimidating some of the local people out there, but that would be misdemeanor stuff. They were careful to behave themselves when off of government land.