Greenpeace wins U.S. case
It as a good day for civil rights and environmental advocacy, as the Bush administration's stifling of dissent has failed. Greenpeace has been acquited of "sailor-mongering". Perhaps now the focus can return to illegal shipments of Brazilian mahogany.
A Miami federal judge on Wednesday sank the U.S. government's nationally publicized criminal case against the international environmental group Greenpeace because of lack of evidence. U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan issued a rare directed verdict finding Greenpeace not guilty midway through the trial -- after government attorneys tried to use a 19th century maritime law for the first time to prosecute an advocacy group's protest methods.
