The Independent reports
More than a dozen protesters who clambered into holes dug for a high pressure gas pipeline said they had been found not responsible by a judge after hearing them argue their actions to try and stop climate change were a legal "necessity".
Karenna Gore, the daughter of former Vice President Al Gore, was among more than 198 people who were arrested because of their 2015 actions protesting the pipeline in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. Thirteen people were to go on trial this week, though prosecutors downgraded their original criminal charges to one of civil infraction.
On [March 27], Judge Mary Ann Driscoll of West Roxbury District Court, found all 13 defendants not responsible, the equivalent of not guilty in a criminal case. She did so after each of the defendants addressed the judge and explained why they were driven to try and halt the pipeline's construction.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 29 2018, @10:57PM
That's why everyone (except the current Administration) knows that mandatory sentences are bad
Is that why Hillary Clinton was a key player in 3 strikes? Oh she 'regrets' it now that it eviscerated her 'black vote'.
That pipeline protest was so sockpuppeted it was not even kind of amusing. Look to who pushed it and who fought it. Two of the largest companies that transport oil on rail. Warren Buffet and Bill gates own those companies. It was nothing more than the oil companies vs the transportation companies with a majorly thin veneer of 'save the world'. http://www.pipeline101.org/where-are-pipelines-located [pipeline101.org]