Pax-salon Mailing List: Fwd: FYI "Claim of Right Testimony" backstory

[patty guerrero (pattypax]

This is written by Susu Jeffrey  .   Please read for her upcoming saonl

> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> From: Susu Jeffrey <SUSUJEFFREY [at] msn.com>
> Subject: FYI "Claim of Right Testimony" backstory
> Date: October 31, 2018 at 10:54:59 AM CDT
> To: patty guerrero <pattypax [at] icloud.com>
> 
>  
> WHY WE GET TO TESTIFY
> ABOUT OUR “CLAIM OF RIGHT”
> IN A CRIMINAL TRESPASS CASE
>  
> By Susu Jeffrey
>  
> On August 3, 1984, the Minnesota Supreme Court decided State v. Brechon. The 
> court held a defendant may not be precluded from testifying about his intent 
> and motives  for trespassing.
>  
> The court also held the jury decides the sufficiency of the evidence 
> presented to establish a claim of right.
>  
> BIRTH OF THE “CLAIM OF RIGHT”
>  
> The “claim of right” in a trespass case is based on breaking into a 
> house-on-fire to save lives.
>  
> THE HONEYWELL PROJECT 1968-1990 Peace conversion with no loss of jobs.
>  
> During the Viet Nam War, Honeywell Corporation was the largest military 
> contractor in Minnesota and had sales offices and plants all over the world. 
> It was one of the top 20 arms manufacturers.
>  
> From 1982-89, more than 2,200 people of peace were arrested for criminal 
> trespass at demonstrations at the corporate headquarters along I-35W (at 28th 
> Street East and 5th Avenue South) in Minneapolis.
>  
> I got arrested with nuns, the wife of the Minneapolis chief of police, Marv 
> Davidov (the soul of the Honeywell Project), the Berrigans, Meridel LeSueur 
> and (the late) John Brechon, just one of us after whom the Brechon Decision 
> is named.
>  
> We had three pro bono, obsessed legal talents who locked onto the concept of 
> allowing motivation to be part of a defendant’s sworn testimony in trespass 
> cases. Ken Tilsen (Wounded Knee, draft resistance, the Austin Hormel strike), 
> Mark Wernick (Stop the Powerline across central Minnesota, end nuclear waste 
> storage at Prairie Island), and attorney Linda Gallant took the case up to 
> the state Supreme Court—and won!
> Mostly we acted as our own lawyers, pro se, since we had hundreds of trials. 
> Every time we went to court we asked for a jury trial and spoke our prepared 
> statements to the citizens who were judging us. We labored over our speeches, 
> poems, military facts, ethical arguments, personal histories. A few times we 
> were acquitted. 
>  
> We served a combined two-years in jails or paid fines or worked at “sentence 
> to serve,” a clever unpaid work program picking up highway litter or cleaning 
> municipal sports facilities with youth of color arrested for minor crimes.
>  
> I remember a judge who said her parents escaped fascist Spain, that she 
> admired us and then announced our punishment. At one of our of small group 
> trials a defendant told the judge “I don’t see how you can sleep at night.” 
> He sent her to city jail for three days for contempt of court with “mostly 
> prostitutes” and a poor woman who got caught for fraud trying to buy diapers 
> and baby supplies.
>  
> TELLING THE TRUTH
>  
> Sometimes you have to say it over and over again.
>  
>  
>