Jury acquits militia that occupied Oregon wildlife refuge - but the saga is far from ov... - 0 views
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Jury acquits militia that occupied Oregon wildlife refuge — but the saga is far from over
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In a stunning conclusion to a five-week trial, a jury acquitted seven defendants who faced a slew of conspiracy and weapons charges related to their armed takeover of a wildlife refuge earlier this year.
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Ammon and Ryan Bundy, who led a group of armed militia members as they occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Oregon in what they claimed was a protest against federal land management
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The Bundy brothers, along with their father, Cliven, still face an array of felony charges in Nevada for another armed standoff with federal agents in 2014.
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Mumford was reportedly taken into custody, cited for both failure to comply with a federal lawful order and disturbance, and released with orders to return to federal court in January.
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It’s exceedingly rare for federal prosecutors to lose one case during a trial, let alone seven at once.
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an FBI agent testified that the agency found 16,636 rounds of ammunition and nearly 1,700 spent shell casings, according to the Associated Press.
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Ammon Bundy even compared himself to Martin Luther King Jr. when he took the stand in his own defense.
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Jurors for the case were pulled from across Oregon, which may have helped the Bundys since many parts of the state are rural, conservative, and distrustful of the federal government. One of the jurors was even dismissed for bias during deliberations
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the timing of the verdict with recent events in North Dakota, where Native American tribes have been protesting against the construction of an oil pipeline. Violence erupted on Thursday when riot police descended on the demonstration and tried to clear out the protesters, after hundreds of arrests a few days before. Others claimed the acquittals were proof of a double standard in the U.S. justice system that benefits white men like the Bundys
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But the fallout of Thursday’s not guilty verdict could have troubling implications for the rise of paramilitary groups in the United States.
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militias operating along the U.S.–Mexico border, more than 275 such groups are believed to be operating in at least 41 states