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--></style><title>Verdict in State of Maine v. the Bangor
Six....G</title></head><body>
<div>Thanks to Gerald Oleson for this report. </div>
<div><br></div>
<div>From: Geraldole@aol.com<br>
Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:50:06 EDT</div>
<div>Subject: Verdict in State of Maine v. the Bangor Six....G</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> Six members
of Maine's Civil Disobedience and Occupation Project went on trial at
9:00, Tuesday, April 29, 2008, at Penobscot Superior Court on Hammond
Avenue in Bangor, Maine. The six people were charged with
"criminal trespass" for refusing to leave the office of U.S.
Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) and the Margaret Chase Smith
Federal Building on Harlow Street, in Bangor, on March 7, 2007, four
years after the U.S. led invasion of Iraq.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> The group
hoped that their presence in Senator Collins' office would focus
Senator Collins' attention on the grievances that the group
had/has about the war in Iraq.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> Doug Rawlings
was defended in court by attorney Phil Worden; Jonathan Kreps and
Henry Braun were defended by attorney Lynne Williams. Phil
Worden and Lynne Williams are members of the National
Lawyers Guild. Defendants Robert Shetterly, Dud Hendrick, and Jim
Freeman defended themselves.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> After a day
of emotional as well as well-reasoned testimony by the defendants,
Judge Michaela Murphy adjourned for the day at 3:30.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> After a
blustery, cold, and rainy Tuesday, we were greeted on Wednesday
with a lovely bright and clear day as the sun rose over the most
easterly part of the United States of America.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> At 9:30 AM,
Wednesday, April 30, 2008 (which also happens to be the 91st
anniversary of the American Friends (Quaker) Service Committee),
twas time for closing arguments in State of Maine
v Douglas Rawlings, Jonathan Kreps, Henry Braun, Robert
Shetterly, Dudley Hendrick, and James Freeman.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> After
Assistant District Attorney Brendan Trainor expressed the state's view
that the defendants were guilty of criminal trespass, the Bangor Six
had their turn.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> Robert
Shetterly talked about good people feeling compelled to act and to do
the right thing. He quoted William Sloan Coffin as saying
"Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with
consistency."</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> Mr. Shetterly
quoted Utah Phillips who said that the degree to which you resist
injustice is the degree to which you are free.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> The next
defendant Dud Hendrick got right into the quotation thing using Noam
Chomsky's statement that a functional democracy requires
informed citizens who will act.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> He then asked
the jury to "join us in our efforts."</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> Mr. Hendrick
that went on to say that the first Chief Justice of the United
State John Jay in Georgia v. Brailsford, 1794, said that the jury
has the right to judge both the law as well as the fact in
controversy.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> In
Georgia v.Brailsford, Chief Justice Jay also said that jurors
should/could acquit, even against the judge's instruction.
(Probably just as well that Dud didn't say that. If the judge felt
that Dud was encouraging "jury nullification" he could be
charged with contempt and sent off to the lock-up without passing GO
or collecting $200.)</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> Dud also
quoted Martin Luther King , Jr. who said that a time comes that
silence is betrayal and tomorrow may be too late.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000">Lynne Williams, the
attorney for Jonathan Kreps and Henry Brann, asked the jury to
"listen to the defendants." "They believed that
they were licensed and privileged" to be in the lobby of the
federal building and the office of Senator Susan Collins on March 7,
2007 and therefore the defendants were NOT guilty of criminal
trespass.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> She also spoke
of the policies of Congressman Mike Michaud and former Senator George
Mitchell....that they didn't arrest demonstrators in their offices.
One probably apocryphal story about Senator Mitchell is that he gave
demonstrators keys to his office in Waterville and told them to lock
up when he left for the night.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> Court-house
lawyer Jimmy Freeman spoke eloquently about "beyond a reasonable
doubt" and what "beyond a reasonable doubt" really
means, and he spoke about the obligation that he felt he had to be
there on March 7, 2008.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000">Phil Worden, the
attorney for Doug Rawlings, spoke next. He said that the
"essential element" in the case was that the defendants at
that time and place on March 7, 2008 <b> knew</b> that they were"
licensed and privileged " to be at there.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000">So that ended the
closing arguments for the defendants. Assistant District Attorney
Trainor then spoke again. The law is that regarding closing
arguments the state speaks first....and then speaks last in
rebuttal.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> The gist
of Mr. Trainor's remarks was that he felt the
defendants had a political mind-set that lead them to say that
international law,eg., the Nuremberg Principles, had been broken.
I suspect that the reverse was true. That studying international law
and the Supremacy Clause of Article Six of the United States
Constitution and learning that the United States had indeed broken
international law lead them to the actions of March 7,
2007.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000">He also said that
"interpreting international law lead them to break a domestic
law." Hmmm...I guess that's probably true in a
way.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> The closing
arguments having been made, Justice Murphy gave her instructions to
the jury. 85% of the instructions were standard boiler plate. (You can
find many examples on the internet.)</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> She talked
about reasonable doubt and emphasized that the defendants would have
to be found guilty if the jury believed "that they KNEW they had
to leave."</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> The jury filed
into the jury room at 11:20 AM......and they emerged at 1:50 PM with a
verdict of<b> NOT GUILTY</b> for all of the defendants.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> It is hard to
describe the emotions felt by those of us who watched the trial. And I
surely can't describe how the defendants and their families and
the lawyers felt so I am not going to try to. The judge had
warned us that she would not tolerate any displays....booing,
cheering, etc., so when one of the observers gave a bit of a<b> yippee
hoot</b> at hearing the verdict one of the deputies asked her to leave
the court room.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> What a
wonderful day...it makes me personally to think of Henry David
Thoreau, Eugene Debs, Sacco and Vanzetti, the Rosenbergs. Rosa Parks,
and Martin Luther King and all the rest. And I think of the work
of Veterans for Peace, Military Families Speak Out, the Peace and
Justice Center of Eastern Maine, and the weekly peace vigils around
the state. And I think of folks like Nancy Gallant and Richard Stander
who set the basis for the verdict today by getting arrested and being
found "guilty of criminal trespass" on the day of the U.S.
invasion of Iraq in 2003. And I think of the other members of
the Bangor 12. They have been vindicated!!!</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> Free at last;
thank God almighty, we are free at last....There is justice in our
land. There is freedom in our land.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> The courage of
the defendants and the attorneys in the Penobscot Superior Court in
Bangor, Maine, on April 30, 2008, has inspired us all and we thank
them for their efforts to save us...to save our country...and to save
our planet.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000">God bless
us...everyone!</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000"> </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1" color="#000000">Reverend Gerald
Oleson<br>
Sunny Corner Fellowship<br>
73 1/2 Court Street<br>
Bangor, Maine 04401</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="-1"
color="#000000">207-947-2970</font></div>
<x-sigsep><pre>--
</pre></x-sigsep>
<div>The Peace & Justice Center of Eastern Maine<br>
170 Park Street<br>
Bangor ME 04401<br>
(207) 942-9343<br>
fax 992-2288<br>
email: info@peacectr.org<br>
check our website:
<http://www.peacectr.org/>www.peacectr.org</div>
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