Posted on 02/03/2011 1:53:48 AM PST by xmission
Council, Governor Commute Sentence
CONCORD, N.H. -- A man convicted of criminal threatening after he was accused of waving a gun at a woman on his property was freed from jail Wednesday.
Ward Bird grabbed his family in a bear hug Wednesday night following his release from the Carroll County Jail.
"I'm humbled, and thank you very much; we will talk more in the future. Right now I want to be with my family," Bird said.
The Moultonborough man spent 77 days behind bars on a 2006 felony criminal threatening conviction, which his supporters said was unjust.
The Executive Council voted unanimously to commute Ward Bird's three- to six-year sentence, but he wasn't given the pardon he asked for.
(Excerpt) Read more at wmur.com ...
This guy is clearly a nut, but you have admit that “warbird” is a very cool name.
OTOH, it probably contributed to his nuttiousity.
Ward Bird is not a “free man”...he wasn’t pardoned.
Oh?
A nut, really?
“Christine Harris, a woman who went past “no trespassing” signs on his property”
A lot of places that will get you shot.
The niece told her that the most direct route to the property was Emerson Path to Yukon Trail, and then a road to the left with a small bridge over a stream. The niece told her that if she passed a white “job trailer,” she was on the wrong property. After Harris left the home of the defendant’s niece, the niece telephoned the defendant to warn him that Harris was going to look at the Viano property and that she might show up on his property. She also told the defendant that Harris was driving a Ford Ranger.
Harris followed the niece’s directions and drove past signs that stated “Private road, keep out” on Emerson Path and “no trespassing” on Yukon Trail.
and
While Harris drove past “no trespassing” signs onto the defendant’s property, she had been given directions to follow the roads with these signs by the defendant’s niece, who had then telephoned the defendant to tell him that Harris was going to look at the Viano property and might stop at his property, and that she was driving a Ford Ranger.
She was instructed to go past the "No Trespassing" signs. Which places do you get shot for going past a "No Trespassing" sign? I'd hate to get shot.
As the appeal states, she was given instructions to go past the No Trespassing signs. If she gets lost and drives down the wrong road she should be shot?
What if I am going to my friends camp for the first time, which is posted no trespassing. I get lost and turn down the wrong road past no trespassing signs, but I pass them because I know my friend’s camp is posted. I should be shot?
Or say my blood sugar is off while hiking and I am disoriented and walk down a posted road. Should I be shot then?
There may be states where you can blow away someone for stepping onto your property, but NH is not one of them.
The liberals are squealing like pigs in the morning papers...
When you are told to get lost by a property owner; you do so. She didn’t. Bird didn’t do anything wrong. NH needs a ‘castle law’...
Who got shot?
Here in Va. using deadly force, threatening deadly force, or just making someone fear you might use deadly force in defense of property will get you jail time. The 1998 precedent setting case was a guy who rushed from his house in the middle of the night stop someone from stealing his car. The owner of the car carried his unloaded .22 rifle with him “just to scare†what he thought was a car thief, and had gone so far as to leave the weapon’s bolt in the house. He never even pointed the weapon at what turned out to be a repo man. The car owner got 3 months in jail, and Virginians lost the ability to protect their property from thieves in the night.
Are you sure this wasn’t Ward Churchill going by his native Indian name trying to keep trespassers off Tribal lands?
So it is OK to shoo the neighbour kids from my yard with a 12ga shotgun?
Nobody was shot in this case, but BigCinBigD stated that merely being where you are not welcome can get you shot.
If there is a normally used public road or path on private property the owner can’t just put up a no trespassing sign or gate the road. This is settled law in many States. In Utah for example the Sierra Club was buying strips of land and then illegally gating old roads. This would allow them to lock up large acreages of BLM land. So hunters would simply tear down the gates. A similar thing occurred in Salt Lake City where east bench homeowners tried to close a hiking trial because they didn’t like all the hikers parking in their neighborhood. The court told the home owners to take a hike. The courts have consistently backed up the principle of public access on established roads and trails even if they cross private land.
So if this road the woman was on was an established public access then the land owner probably has no legal right to close it.
“The best way not to get shot is not to go where you don’t belong. “
So walking past a No Trespassing sign should be a death sentence? It seems a bit extreme.
Devoted prayer will allow you to meet God. Trespassing is quicker.
Well; some refer to those creeps in Mount Vernon as "kids"...
In Texas it is. Not very prudent, or smart, but legal.
Now if the neighbor's kids are raising felonious hell in your front yard at night, you can part their hair with the shotgun, not just shoo them out.
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