Jury Seated for Ithaca Protesters After Exhaustive Day(St. Patrick's Four)

[buzzsaw_23]

Jury seated for Ithaca protesters after exhaustive day

By NANCY DOOLING
Gannett News Service

 
BINGHAMTON — A man who taught high school mathematics to an Iraq war casualty — Isaac Nieves, 20, of Sidney — didn't make the cut as a juror who will decide whether four Ithaca protesters broke federal laws when they poured their own blood inside a military recruiting office as a protest against the Iraq war.

<snip>

But after about seven grueling hours of jury selection, a nurse, a Wal-Mart department manager, a carpenter, and a man who runs master control for WBNG-TV in Binghamton will be among the 12 jurors who will hear opening arguments today as prosecutors try to prove the St. Patrick's Four violated federal law on St. Patrick's Day 2003 when they poured blood on the floor, walls, the American flag and other items in the Tompkins County recruiting office.

A Tompkins County jury last year was unable after 20 hours of deliberations to decide whether Clare Grady, 39, Teresa Grady, 46, Peter De Mott, 58, and Daniel Burns, 46, broke New York laws when they were tried in connection with the incident. The Tompkins County trial on felony mischief charges ended in a mistrial, and the case was passed on to federal prosecutors for federal scrutiny.

<snip>

Both the prosecution and the defense nearly exhausted the panel of 70-80 potential Southern Tier jurors before a final jury was selected at 6:30 p.m. Monday. Seven hours after jury selection began, only 11 of the potential jurors were not questioned. Despite the wide pool of potential jurors, odd connections were discovered. A Binghamton teacher was excused after she told Judge Thomas J. McAvoy that she taught both the daughter of Miroslav Lovric, the assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case, and a nephew of Daniel Burns, one of the defendants who is the son of the former late Binghamton mayor, John Burns Sr.

http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050920/NEWS01/509200333/1002

[struggle4progress]

1. Protesters try to speak out against war during federal trial

By WILLIAM KATES
Associated Press Writer
September 20, 2005, 5:53 PM EDT

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- Four anti-war demonstrators told a federal court jury Tuesday that they were upholding a higher law when they spilled human blood at a military recruiting station to protest the war in Iraq.

But despite the defendants' efforts, U.S. District Judge Thomas McAvoy kept them from turning the proceedings into a trial on the war and Bush administration policy as he repeatedly limited their remarks during opening statements, often telling jurors to ignore the defendants' comments when they strayed from the charges.

This case is not about the war in Iraq. It is about what happened in Ithaca, New York, in December 2002 and March 2003," McAvoy told the defendants. "To discuss the war and what is happening in Iraq is not permissible. You might not agree with that. I'm sorry. But that's the way it has to be." <snip>

The group, all members of the social justice organization Catholic Worker contend the war in Iraq is illegal and said they were upholding international law in a justifiable nonviolent protest. <snip>

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--recruitmentprotes0920sep20,0,2837827.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork


The judge, of course, is a Reaganite ...