There has been an enormous amount of commentary breaking down what happened in Utah. From law professors, legal practitioners, journalists, to meat industry newsletters, it seems like everyone with a connection to animals or food has an analysis of the case. For the most part, these breakdowns have been speculative. Persuasion is more art than science, and no one had gone to the source: the jurors who had the historic decision.
In the history of animal rights, there has never been a court case
where a jury has acquitted animal activists for openly rescuing
animals from a factory farm. Until this past October, that is, when
8 jurors in Utah unanimously determined that Paul Picklesimer and I
were not guilty for openly rescuing animals from the largest pig
farm in the nation, Smithfield’s Circle Four Farms.
Now, for the first time, the world will hear directly from the
jurors how that happened; lawyers, activists, and the jurors
themselves will be joining a University of Denver summit, the
brainchild of animal law professor Justin Marceau. And while I have
a special reason to be interested in what we will discuss — my own
freedom is on the line in two remaining felony cases — there is a
bigger question that this summit will answer. It is perhaps the
central question of our age:
In a world filled with cruelty, how do we inspire people to stand
for kindness?
There has been an enormous amount of commentary breaking down what
happened in Utah. From law professors, legal practitioners,
journalists, to meat industry newsletters, it seems like everyone
with a connection to animals or food has an analysis of the case.
(Of special note, my co-defendant Eva Hamer, who will be going to
trial with me later this year, recently published one of the best
accounts of the trial. Check it out.) But, for the most part, these
breakdowns have been speculative. Persuasion is more art than
science, and no one had gone to the source: the jurors who had the
historic decision.
....
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