Multnomah County Drops Charges Against Climate Activists Who Blocked Portland Railroad Tracks

The dismissal follows a mistrial from two weeks ago that ended in a deadlocked jury.

Ken Ward (Joe Riedl)

In a decision with national ramifications, the Multnomah County District Attorney on Wednesday dismissed its case against the five climate activists who built a vegetable garden atop Portland train tracks in April of 2019, blocking the route to Zenith Energy Management, an oil company.

This case is particularly unusual, considering all of the defendants admitted to carrying out the crime for which they were being prosecuted.

Ken Ward, a nationally known climate activist from Corbett, Ore., along with Jan Zuckerman, Margaret Butler, Mike Horner, and Emily Carl were all charged with criminal trespass, which is a misdemeanor.

Lawyers from the Civil Liberties Defense Center made a novel argument, known as the climate necessity defense: The act of trespassing caused less injury or harm than that of climate change, which the activists were protesting in the act of trespassing.

The case initially resulted in a mistrial two weeks ago, when five out of six jurors voted to acquit, with one lone holdout. Portland resident Chris Forns, a juror of that trial, was one of those five.

"I [decided] not guilty from as soon as it was time to deliberate," Forns tells WW. "I don't think the prosecution did enough to say that the defense wasn't applicable."

The defendants consider the dismissal a victory.

"This outcome extends a string of court victories, where jurors, judges, and prosecutors, in a variety of ways, are acknowledging the fundamental reality of the climate crisis," Ward said in a statement. "Activists are demanding the right to tell the truth, using the climate necessity defense — that nonviolent direct action is the only effective means to address this emergency."

Today's dismissal could encourage judges to allow the climate necessity defense to be argued more frequently in court. It also indicates that the climate defense has the potential to be successful in other cases going forward.

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