Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

[USA] All SHAC 7 Defendants Found Guilty on All Charges

Tommy G | 03.03.2006 00:47 | Animal Liberation | Repression | Cambridge | World

Minutes ago, all the SHAC 7 (Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty) defendants were found guilty on all charges.

Court is in recess at the moment, but when it resumes, a
decision will be made as to which of the convicted activists will be
remanded into police custody immediately and which will be given some time to report for incarceration. Sentencing has not yet taken
place. Additional details to follow.

Additional Shac 7 info:

 http://www.shac7.com/

 http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=2719227&Mytoken=20040915021901

OR CONTACT THE SHAC7 SUPPORT COMMITTEE:

 UPDATES@SHAC7.COM

>> MAKE A DONATION TO THE SHAC 7 DEFENSE FUND:

SHAC 7 c/o
NJARA
PO Box 174
Englishtown, NJ 07726

or donate online at
 http://www.guidestar.org/controller/searchResults.gs?action_donateReport=1&partner=networkforgood&ein=22-2849700

---------------------------------------------------------------

From CNN.com
Animal rights group guilty of inciting terror
Thursday, March 2, 2006; Posted: 4:22 p.m. EST (21:22 GMT)
 http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/03/02/animal.rights.ap

TRENTON, New Jersey (AP) -- A federal jury on Thursday convicted an
animal rights group and six of its members of inciting violence and
terror during their campaign to shut down a company that uses animals to
test drugs and consumer products.

The group, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, maintained its actions
constituted free speech.

The government claimed the group, which goes by the acronym SHAC, used
its Web site to incite violence against people and institutions it
claimed were affiliated with the animal testing lab.

The lab, Huntingdon Life Sciences, is based in New Jersey and Britain.

The verdict came after about 14 hours of deliberations over three days
and followed a three-week trial before U.S. District Judge Anne E.
Thompson.

There was no audible reaction from the defendants or about a dozen of
their supporters in the courtroom.

SHAC, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and six of its members were
charged with animal enterprise terrorism, stalking and other offenses as
part of its five-year campaign against the lab.
First time law is used

The trial on the first charge, conspiracy to violate the Animal
Enterprise Protection Act, is believed to be the first since the law was
enacted in 1992, said the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles B.
McKenna.

The defense rested after just one day, and used testimony from the
group's president, Pamelyn Ferdin, a former child star who was the voice
of Lucy in the movies and TV specials based on the "Peanuts" comic
strip. She was not charged.

Ferdin, who also played Felix Unger's daughter Edna on "The Odd Couple"
TV comedy series, told jurors, "For the government to say you can't say
this and you can't say that is going down a very scary path of going
toward fascism."

Ferdin became leader of the group in 2004 after its former president,
Kevin Kjonaas and the others were indicted.

Also testifying was one of the defendants, Joshua Harper, who said that
he opposes injuring any life form, including human beings. But he also
said it is all right to throw rocks through someone's window as long as
the person is not home.

Also charged were Lauren Gazzola, Jacob Conroy, Andrew Stepanian and
Darius Fullmer.
Six-count indictment

The six-count indictment charged SHAC and its members with animal
enterprise terrorism, which carries a sentence of up to three years in
prison and a $250,000 fine.

SHAC and three of its members were also charged with multiple counts of
interstate stalking and conspiracy to engage in interstate stalking,
which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000
fine for each count.

The group and four of its members were charged with one count of
telephone harassment, which carries a maximum sentence of two years in
prison.

During the trial, the prosecution presented testimony showing that
SHAC's campaign against Huntingdon involved posting personal information
about its employees and those of firms that do business with the animal
testing company on the Web.

Many of those targeted have had their homes vandalized, and received
threats against them or their families, testimony revealed.

Under cross-examination by defense lawyers, prosecution witnesses
admitted they did not know who sent e-mails or faxes or made telephone
calls they had described as threatening.

----------------------------------------------------------------

For background on the group and the charges, see "Attack of the
Terrorist Fax" at:
 http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/jones06152004

----------------------------------------------------------------

Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty UK:  http://www.shac.net
Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty USA:  http://www.shacamerica.net

----------------------------------------------------------------

The World's a shit hole. MAN is the Bastard.

Tommy G

Comments

Hide the following 4 comments

Sadly, a valuable lesson was learnt...

03.03.2006 14:23

At any moment in history, there exists a scam industry, whose only purpose is to create MASSIVE phoney share value that creates the next generation of hyper-rich elites, and allows them to buy ANY politician or lawyer/judge with their pocket change. This last point is essential to note- knock the industry, and you immediately come to the attention of the power elite's political and judicial guard dogs.

Today's no.1 phoney stock scams revolve around 'medical' research companies. The amount of legitimate work done in this field is insignificant compared to the stock-price boosting scams. A large chunk of this boosted stock finds its way into the pockets of key politicians. These people have an attachment to their ill gotten gains like you won't believe. And, of course, these are the self-same people that slaughtered the nation of Iraq without losing a millisecond of sleep over the millions of humans that had their lives ruined.

The politicians don't care if tulips are cultivated (look it up) or animals tortured. All they care about is the money in their pocket. If you take an action likely to hit them, or their pals where it counts, they will come down on you like a species-extincting asteroid.

You will all notice that at the same time animal-rights activists were being wiped out by the force of the state, anti-abortion protestors won an historic victory in the US courts. This isn't a game. If you choose to fight, you must do everything possible to ensure victory, which means understanding your enemy in EVERY detail. Fairness will play no part.

twilight


Do People on Jurys work for Corporations?

04.03.2006 15:59

I heard a rumor, i don't know,if it is true but do the people on the jurys work for corporations?
It may be untrue but the "evidence" against shac usa, was flimsy and the imperitive to protect corprate profits from the shac campaign is desperate.
Some of the "evidence" against shac usa, was a webpage article called the,"top 20 terror tactics",which was written by RDS(Research Defence Society-they represent vivisectors,chemical/drug companys,animal breeders/sellers) and was reposted by shac usa from the RDS website,basicly to show the lengths of demonisation and distortion of reality,the pro animal experimentation industry financed groups will go to.

There is an industry financed group called ALEC,i can't remember the full name but they in america have brought about most of the new laws,designed to protect industry profits from AR,envioronmental,human rights activists-i'm sure there's a similar group in the uk.

Tim


justice

05.03.2006 14:35

Tim, your paranoia is infantile and Michael Mooreish in the extreme. If these guys didn't want to go to jail, they should have had no part in SHAC's sensationalist and extremist campaign. The more of SHAC go to jail the better as far as I'm concerned.

Shaci
mail e-mail: shac.is.gay@gmail.com


Tulips??

07.03.2006 05:13

???

Michael Morris
mail e-mail: nezumi1@ihug.co.nz


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech