A Litigation Article from All-Creatures.org



What I Learned from the Smithfield Jury

From Wayne Hsiung, Substack.com
January 2023

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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Please read the ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE.


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