The SHAC 7
On March 2, 2006, six animal welfare advocates associated with the group Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) were convicted in federal court of conspiring to cause financial damages to an animal testing company. The defendants were commonly known as the SHAC 7 before the government dropped charges against one of their co-defendants. The company Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) performs vivisection experiments on about 75,000 beagle puppies, rabbits, mice, and other animals each year, and kills 500 animals a day. The defense was not allowed to present any evidence that related to the cruelty of vivisection or reflected on the virtues of the SHAC protests.
The crux of the government's case was that SHAC used its website, which was taken offline following the verdict, to encourage others to commit crimes against HLS and its supporters. The group's campaign to get HLS to stop testing on animals or close down has had a large degree of success. Dozens of large companies, including The Bank of New York, Stephens Inc. and Marsh Inc. have pledged in writing to never have anything to do with HLS again.
On September 12, after a tirade of inflammatory rhetoric by the prosecution, impassioned speeches by the defense, and commentary by the court, the court handed down the following sentences:
Kevin Kjonaas: 72 months
Lauren Gazzola: 54 months
Jacob Conroy: 48 months
One day later, Joshua Harper was sentenced to 36 months and a week later Andrew Stepanian received a 36 month sentence and Darius Fullmer was sentenced to 12 months, 1 day. The additional day added to Darius' sentence is significant in that a sentence of over one year, given his Category 1 federal status, allows for potential early release, whereas a sentence of under one year would have meant that he served his sentence day for day with no possibility of early release.
In addition, the court ordered the (penniless) defendants to pay $1,000,001 in restitution.
For a more personal summary of the sentencing, click here.
SHAC7.com
Article:
"Green is the New Red: How the Bush Administration Is Using Terror Laws to Prosecute Nonviolent Environmental Activists," by Will Potter Eugene Weekly: SHAC Smackdown