Earth Equity News

Kingsnorth Six Acquitted under 'Lawful Excuse' Defense. By Michael McCarthy, London Independent, September 11, 2008. "The jury at Maidstone Crown Court [has] cleared six Greenpeace activists of criminal damage [at the Kingsnorth power station in Kent, accepting] defence arguments that the six had a 'lawful excuse' [in order] to prevent even greater damage caused by climate change. The defence of 'lawful excuse'... allows damage to be caused to property to prevent even greater damage... The not-guilty verdict, delivered after two days and greeted with cheers in the courtroom... could encourage further direct action...The plan to build a successor to the power station is likely to be the first of a new generation of coal-fired plants... During the eight-day trial, the world's leading climate scientist, Professor James Hansen of NASA... appealed to [British] Prime Minister [Gordon Brown] personally to 'take a leadership role' in... scrapping the idea of a coal-fired future for Britain... At the trial, [Hansen] called for an moratorium on all coal-fired power stations, and his hour-long testimony... was listened to intently by the jury of nine women and three men... [Ben Stewart, one of the six, said after the trial,] 'This verdict marks a tipping point for the climate change movement. When a jury of normal people say it is legitimate for a direct action group to shut down a coal-fired power station because of the harm it does to our planet, then where does that leave Government energy policy?'"