You might be able to say this case was tried in “rural” Oregon, if you considered the largest city in the state, Portland, to be rural. No this was not tried in rural Oregon. On the other hand, this was a federal jury, which means the jury pool is drawn from some rural counties in addition to Multnomah County.
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I wonder if there is a Native American tribe that can bring a suit.
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Saw this coming when she replaced the juror. It never sounded like this judge had control of the trial. Kind of a federal Lance Ito. The trial went on way too long, and she let the defense attorneys take over.
And Nevada might be even tougher.
Jury nullification, pure and simple. They were guilty as hell.
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There is an argument that they should have been charged with insurrection under 18 U S Code Section 2383 instead of or in addition to the conspiracy charges so that the jury could have had a choice.
Perhaps, however, the case was lost in jury selection
.
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So, your solution is to just let things go as long as it looks like (or you at least tell yourself) that the criminals are doing poorly in life?
Riiight. It’s a win that a bunch of armed wingnut crackpots can take over public facilities, dig trenches, shit all over the place, fuck up research logs and record keeping, and break archeological artifacts, all without suffering any legal consequences?
You’re gonna have to explain how that’s a “win” for rural America, jackass. On second thought: Don’t. I don’t think it’s humanly possible to defend that much stupidity without driving your listeners to murder.
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Jury nullification. There is no doubt at all that many laws were broken, but the jury decided to let 'em off.
If there’s another Malheur and blood is shed as a result of these insurrectionists being emboldened, the blood will be on the jurors’ hands.
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Good-bye rule of law! We’re going to miss you!
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AKA “Portland” the 28th largest city in the country. More populous than Milwaukee, Las Vegas and Atlanta.
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Your next trial begins in February. Now go back to your cell.
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It was a jury that acquitted them. An all-white one of course.
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Bear in mind, the jurors that acquitted these terrorists, and the same people that applaud this decision, are the same ones that blame Hillary for Benghazi; and are upset about black people fighting back against the police, which is part of the government. Figure that out.
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Sounds a lot like jury nullification to me.
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I followed this trial and it appeared to me from the beginning that the prosecutors made things way too complex for an average jury. The judge didn’t help any. However, the defense was horrible and there’s no way these morons shouldn’t have been found guilty of something.
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Can the federal government sue in civil court for damages to the property?
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SEDITION ACT 18 USC 2384
If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.
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No, but like OJ, he got his in a civil trial later. Everyone knew he was guilty, too.
There’s the little matter of the destruction of property. Thankfully, the only fool that died was suicide by cop. It sure could have been worse.
Everyone was bitching when the government didn’t go in guns ablazing when this whole thing got started. Gee, that wouldn’t have made things worse at all.
I’m happy that cooler heads are prevailing here. Sort of takes the winds out of the sails of conspiracy theorists about big bad government, Ruby Ridge and Waco.
You are free to think what you want.
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You’re right, I am.
And so far I’ve been right about the (lack of) outcome of this one and of the original ranch stand off.
But I’m sure another sternly worded letter will fix it.
And no, that’s some straw man horseshit. However, a whole lot of people did want to know why they were allowed to receive care packages and stroll to town whenever they pleased. Of course, it was totally a case of we simpletons not understanding the feds’ brilliant eleventy-dimensional chess and it would all totally end with these guys breaking rocks in some federal penitentiary.
Any day now I’m sure.
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I added the bit about Ruby Ridge and Waco.
Federal authorities took a very very slow step by step approach during the stand off - possibly the next time some stunt like this is pulled, there will be a swifter & much much larger & bluntly overwhelming response will be delivered - and if these faux-cowboy yokels elect to start firing on federal law enforcement officers - there will not be a need of trials.
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