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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJury Soon to Begin Deliberating - #BundyTeaParty
OCTOBER 19, 2016
By George Prentice
... Acting as his own lawyer, defendant Ryan Bundy began presenting his closing argument to jurors Wednesday morning. He was scheduled to be followed by defense attorneys for the six remaining co-defendants. Per federal court rules, 20 potential jurors have sat through the entire trial thus far. Once the case is handed over for deliberation, eight alternate jurors will be excused, leaving 12 to make the final decision.
... federal prosecutor Ethan Knight ... "ridiculed the suggestion by defendants that any of the refuge employees could easily have shown up to work while the Bundys were using their offices" ...
Marcus Mumford, lawyer for Ammon Bundy, argued his client's intent was "to stake claim" to the refuge because there was a "legitimate dispute regarding the ownership of the land."
http://www.boiseweekly.com/boise/jury-soon-to-begin-deliberating-fate-of-seven-in-malheur-refuge-occupation-trial/Content?oid=3914828
struggle4progress
(118,379 posts)KOIN 6 News Staff and The Associated Press
Published: October 19, 2016, 6:00 am Updated: October 19, 2016, 3:49 pm
... The reason Ryan joined the protest, he explained, was to support ranchers Dwight and Steve Hammond who he believes were wrongly imprisoned. He said federal government overreach not only put the Hammonds behind bars, but continues to imperil the economies of places like Harney County.
He said Malheur has gone from the jewel of Harney County to the biggest weed patch in the country because the federal government controls the land and restricts logging and ranching.
At some point the people have to insist that the government is not our master, he said. They are our servants, and we have given them a duty ...
In her closing argument, Shawna Coxs lawyer Tiffany Harris said she wanted to remind jurors the refuge is a public place and these are public employees ...
http://koin.com/2016/10/19/ryan-bundy-to-give-closing-argument-in-malheur-trial/
csziggy
(34,139 posts)This statement shows how delusional these people are.
Malheur means 'misfortune' - which applied to both the Paiute who were dispossessed of their land and to the land itself:
Before the Bundys seized it from the feds, the feds seized it from the Paiute.
By Char Miller, January 7, 2016
<SNIP>
The land suffered, too. As Langston points out, it is no coincidence that dispossessing the Paiute allowed large livestock operations to take over, resulting in the rapid deterioration of grazing lands in the upper reaches of the Silvies and Blitzen rivers that flow into Malheur Lake.
Further diminishing the lakes capacity to sustain migratory and local bird populations were the irrigation and drainage projects that the Bureau of Reclamation, founded in 1902 to manage water to boost economic development in the arid West, built upstream.
Add to this environmental degradation the reckless hunt for bird plumage: late-19th-century fashionistas coveted the white herons graceful feathers to adorn their hats. With gold rush-like avarice, local hunters blazed away, and within a few years, the Malheur heron population was decimated.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/01/07/the-complicated-history-of-who-really-owns-the-occupied-land-in-oregon
The myth that the area was a paradise until the Federal Government acquired the refuge land is just that - a myth. Their delusion goes back to the Sagebrush Rebellion - and the results of those standoffs generated in that confrontation were court cases that settled the exact issues that the Bundys and their followers are still fighting today:
(from above WP article)
struggle4progress
(118,379 posts)By: AP
Posted: Oct 19, 2016 01:45 PM PDT
Updated: Oct 19, 2016 01:45 PM PDT
... Acting as his own attorney, Bundy quoted Martin Luther King Jr., saying injustice anywhere is threat to justice everywhere ...
He acknowledged taking over the workspace of federal employees, saying the occupiers didn't know whose seats they were sitting in and didn't care. He said it might sound callous, but the purpose of the movement was beyond such considerations.
http://www.ktvz.com/news/ryan-bundy-urges-refuge-jurors-to-stand-for-freedom/126671498
struggle4progress
(118,379 posts)By Reuters Media
Today at 9:34 a.m.
... You are the heart and lungs of liberty, Mumford told jurors during an impassioned presentation lasting nearly four hours. Only you can make clear that Mr. Bundy is not a conspirator and none of these men and women are conspirators ...
Mumford said federal officials sought to manipulate the occupiers through the use of informants planted at the compound to help the government portray the protesters as scary people.
He cited evidence accepted by the court that nine government informants were present at the refuge during the occupation, furnishing intelligence to federal law enforcement while influencing the course of events there ...
http://www.brainerddispatch.com/news/elsewhere/4140114-oregon-armed-militants-cast-defense-victims-corrupt-government
malaise
(269,219 posts)Thanks
struggle4progress
(118,379 posts)By Leah Sottile
October 19 at 5:44 PM
... In closing arguments presented Tuesday and Wednesday, the government and defense teams painted starkly different portraits of the six men and one woman accused of engaging in a conspiracy to impede federal officers from performing their duties at the refuge. Prosecutors argued that the conspiracy charges have been amply proven: U.S. Fish & Wildlife officers who worked at the refuge werent able to perform their duties because gun-toting occupiers had taken over their offices.
But the defense argues that the occupiers were doing the opposite: They were acting nobly, and that lead defendant Ammon Bundy was leading peaceful political protesters to act in the spirit of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. when they took over the federal facility ...
The trial included weeks of testimony that the armed protesters at the refuge were peaceful. But in its closing remarks, the government pointed to the evidence which included more than 16,000 rounds of live ammunition and asked the mostly female jury to see the simplicity of the conspiracy charges. People brought their ammunition, their guns, to fortify themselves in a space that didnt belong to them, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Ethan Knight. By occupying the refuge, tearing down signs and setting up shop in the offices there, Knight argued that the Fish & Wildlife officers employed there were being sent a message: Youre not welcome here anymore, weve changed your place of work. Go home.
Knight said that the defendants simply dont play by the rules. Ammon Bundy is someone who believes the rules apply to him when he wants them to, he said, noting that viewing the occupation as a political protest one characterized during the trial as a Martin Luther King-style sit-in flies in the face of common sense ...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/10/19/as-oregon-wildlife-refuge-occupation-case-draws-to-a-close-disparate-stories-compete-for-jurys-approval/?utm_term=.b113bed2a7e5
pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)sinkingfeeling
(51,482 posts)struggle4progress
(118,379 posts)Thu Oct 20, 2016 | 12:24am EDT
By Scott Bransford
Closing arguments drew to an end on Wednesday ...
One attorney argued that his client, David Fry, the last of the occupiers to surrender in February, was a confused man who suffers from mental illness and found himself caught up in a dangerous protest. Others portrayed the 41-day occupation as a legitimate effort to stand up for civil liberties and rally to the cause of rural people.
Prosecutors got the last word, presenting a brief rebuttal argument reiterating the government's case that the seven defendants engaged in a lawless scheme to seize government property by armed force.
The U.S. District Court jury in Portland was set to begin deliberations on Thursday. Judge Anna Brown instructed the 12-member panel late Wednesday on how they should apply the law to facts in the case ...
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-oregon-militia-idUSKCN12K06I
struggle4progress
(118,379 posts)THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wednesday, October 19, 2016, 7:18 PM
... Shawna Cox .. represented herself during the trial. On Wednesday, she let her standby counsel, Tiffany Harris, handle her closing statement.
Harris hit on similar points as Bundy, talking about the economic travails of Harney County. She said the government wants to sell a story that outsiders came to Burns and stirred up trouble.
"The problem was already there," Harris said ...
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ryan-bundy-quotes-martin-luther-king-jr-closing-arguments-article-1.2837204
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)I'm guessing that the jury is going to want lunch today, so they'll announce that they've reached a verdict about 2 p.m. PDT to make it look like there were some actual deliberations, instead of summarily pronouncing these nutjobs guilty from the jury box.
struggle4progress
(118,379 posts)struggle4progress
(118,379 posts)Maxine Bernstein, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore. (TNS)
Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016 | 2 a.m.
... Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Gabriel responded ... "This was not a redress. This was retaliation and it was retribution for what refuge workers and BLM workers had done to the Hammonds" ... He reminded them that both Hammonds were convicted of setting fire to Bureau of Land Management land and Steven Hammond was sent to federal prison also for setting fire to land within the Malheur refuge.
"The Hammonds were the motive for committing this crime," Gabriel continued. "The refuge was not a coincidence" ...
Gabriel argued that it wouldn't have been prudent for FBI agents to have descended on the refuge's front gate and ask those standing guard to leave.
"The FBI was trying to avoid another Bunkerville," he said ...
https://lasvegassun.com/news/2016/oct/20/federal-conspiracy-case-against-ammon-bundy-six-co/
struggle4progress
(118,379 posts)By Colin Miner (Patch Staff) - October 20, 2016 4:02 am ET
Ryan Bundy apologized for "any unintentional conveniences we may have caused" as he delivered his own closing argument ...
Matt Schindler, who is representing Kenneth Medenbach, argued to jurors the actions of his defendants and others were not criminal.
"How did any of these people benefit from protesting the death of rural America?" he asked.
http://patch.com/oregon/portland/oregon-standoff-trial-ryan-bundy-tells-jurors-sorry-inconvenience
randome
(34,845 posts)In this type of case, does it need to be unanimous or will a mistrial automatically be declared?
[hr][font color="blue"][center]A 90% chance of rain means the same as a 10% chance:
It might rain and it might not.[/center][/font][hr]
struggle4progress
(118,379 posts)(b) Partial Verdicts, Mistrial, and Retrial.
(1) Multiple Defendants. If there are multiple defendants, the jury may return a verdict at any time during its deliberations as to any defendant about whom it has agreed.
(2) Multiple Counts. If the jury cannot agree on all counts as to any defendant, the jury may return a verdict on those counts on which it has agreed.
(3) Mistrial and Retrial. If the jury cannot agree on a verdict on one or more counts, the court may declare a mistrial on those counts. The government may retry any defendant on any count on which the jury could not agree ...
https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcrmp/rule_31
randome
(34,845 posts)Even if every charge doesn't stick, there should be enough to put these bozos away. It's doubtful the prosecution would have 'allowed' someone who seemed anti-government to be on the jury in the first place but it's always possible a juror could secretly harbor those sentiments.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]A 90% chance of rain means the same as a 10% chance:
It might rain and it might not.[/center][/font][hr]