Hancock Drone Resisters Found Guilty; Sentencing is April 24

FIVE HANCOCK DRONE RESISTERS

to be SENTENCED WEDNESDAY,

APRIL 24

At 6 pm, Wednesday, April 24 in DeWitt (NY) town court Judge Robert Jokl will sentence five Hancock drone resisters for peacefully blocking the main entrance of Hancock air field last October 5, 2012.

The Judge found the five guilty of “trespass” in an April 18 bench trial. The five were among ten who had attempted to deliver a citizens’ indictment to the base commander and personnel for ongoing war crimes being perpetrated with weaponized Reaper drones over Afghanistan.

Noting that the October 5 defendants weren’t disobeying the law, but rather seeking to enforce international law, defendant Jim Clune told Judge Jokl, “We have no need to work at cross purposes here. Law is a wonderful instrument when it safeguards and promotes life, and it should be used for that purpose.”

A sixth defendant, Martha Hennessey, a New York City Catholic Worker, was found not guilty in absentia.

The October 5 action is one of a half dozen such initiatives at Hancock by Upstate Drone Action, a grassroots group opposing Reaper war crimes.

Those found guilty:

Jim Clune of Binghamton, Brian Hynes of the Bronx, Ed Kinane of Syracuse, Julienne Oldfield of Syracuse, and Mark Scibilia-Carver of Trumansburg.

Statement from drone resister Ed Kinane dated April 24, 2013:

While my remarks this evening are pre-sentencing, they are also post-verdict. So I feel a need to comment on your verdict of last Thursday evening. But first I do want to express my appreciation to you, Judgge Jokl, for, last Thursday evening, being attentive, for listening, for doing nothing to obstruct our defense. The recently deceased Constitutional scholar Ronald Dworkin once argued that a citizen has a (quote) “moral responsibility…not only to form convictions of one’s own, but to express these to others, out of respect and concern for them, and out of a compelling desire that truth be known, justice served, and the good secured.”* (unquote). I would argue that judges are also citizens and have similar responsibilities. I would further argue that while judges – indeed all citizens -- have a “moral responsibility” to express our convictions for the sake of justice and for the common good, we also all have the responsibility to act on them. Acting on our convictions is exactly what the ten of us did at Hancock air base last October 5.

If PL 140.05, the trespass statute under which you found the five of us guilty, were the highest law of our land, I would have only certain qualms about accepting whatever legal maximum prison sentence you might impose. (I’m not even going to comment on this court’s custom of levying fines, as I can see no link whatsoever between such punitive actions and justice. Similarly, incidentally,can I see any link between this court’s penchant for promiscuously issuing orders of protection and anyone’s safety.)

Sir, you and I both know that PL 140.05, is not the highest law of our land. According to Article Six of the U.S. Constitution, International law trumps both local and federal law. You surely have sworn to uphold that Constitution. So it’s likely you have studied the U.S. Constitution and Constitutional law. But since memory can be rusty, let me read aloud Article 6: This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. I believe that in finding us guilty you chose to ignore Article 6 and you chose to ignore International Law. While I hold the U.S. Constitution and International Law in high esteem, I consider neither sacrosanct. Far higher in my mind is Ronald Dworkin’s standard of the common good and the standard of justice. And by those standards I believe your verdict last Thursday evening failed

Thank you.

Ed Kinane

*Ronald Dworkin, “The Coming Battles Over Free Speech,”The New York Review, June 11, 1992. (Cited by David Cole, page 6 of the May 9, 2013 NYRB.)