If this guy was tried and convicted, then the government managed to convince twelve jurors of his guilt.
Seems he was found by twelve jurors not guilty the first time not guilty
I have no doubt some government goon lawyer was looking for a promotion
----Krister was arrested at gunpoint. He was found not guilty, but the government wouldn’t stop there. After spending $430,000 in tax dollars, the government subsequently tried and convicted Krister for abandoning the â€toxic†materials he clearly and carefully stored under another’s supervision. Krister spent nearly two years in federal prison.----
Me, too. Horrible reporting, it leaves the reader with more questions than answers. So, did UPS actually ship the sodium by air? Under what construct did the fed's claim he 'abandoned' the stuff?
Reading comprehension is not your strong point is it? The article clearly states that he was found not guilty at his first trial. Then the Feds went after him for something else.
Some info from a Jan 3, 2014 document by the Washington Legal Foundation (WLF):
“The evidence indicates that the chemicals were not abandoned “waste†at all but rather were valuable materials that Evertson planned to use in his manufacturing business. To obtain a conviction under RCRA, prosecutors had to show that the defendant abandoned the hazardous chemicals. If allowed to testify, Evertson would have explained that he safely stored the chemicals and left Idaho to earn money needed to restart his business, but he always intended to return and put his temporarily-stored materials to good use. However, his defense attorneys did not permit him to testify, and the jury convicted him without ever hearing him explain this.
Evertson seeks to overturn his conviction on the ground that he was denied effective assistance of counsel, in violation of his Sixth Amendment rights. WLF’s petition noted that the final decision whether a defendant should take the witness stand belongs to the defendant, and defense counsel acts unethically in overruling a client’s decision to testify. WLF argued that his lawyers’ decision deprived Evertson of the ability to respond to prosecutors’ claims that he abandoned his chemicals. The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that Evertson waived his right to testify when he failed to stand up in open court to challenge his counsel’s statement that the defense would rest without calling additional witnesses. That waiver rule conflicts with decisions from five other appeals courts, and WLF asked the Supreme Court to review and resolve the conflict. “
Per this EPA press release, he was dealing with 10 tons of sodium, and they claim he stored it improperly.
I don’t know any more than that...but the original article gave me the impression he just mailed one box of sodium. Seems like he tried a business venture that didn’t pan out, and didn’t have the means to store the unused sodium to the EPA’s liking.
My question is why didn’t they go after UPS? The guy clearly marked ground but they ignored his request and shipped it per air anyway, knowing probably what was in it.
“then the government managed to convince twelve jurors of his guilt. “
Given that a lot of people — too include some FReepers — brag about getting out of jury duty, it is not surprising that the jurors impaneled are easily led by the government/prosecutor.
Or the presiding judge convinced the jurors that "The law is what I say it is, and I say the law says the defendant is Guilty!".
If this guy was tried and convicted, then the government managed to convince twelve jurors of his guilt. ===
This guy was aquitted at his first trial.
Then the feds brought more charges. Fed lawyers and prosecuters, funded with unlimited money, make specific charges, and very limiting jury instructions.
So these second charges were found guilty.
A lot of federal crimes now are “strict liability,” that is, you are guilty if you did what they say, even if you didn’t know that you did anything wrong or even if others actually did it, if their actions can be attributed to you.
An example is that someone can be prosecuted by the feds for trying to sell an old family piano on Craigslist because it has ivory keys, even if you didn’t know the keys were made of ivory or the reason you are selling it was it was your recently deceased grandmother’s and you are just trying to clear out her stuff.
In the seventies my former barber was arrested for having a stuffed owl on display in his barbershop. The shop was named the “Owl Barbershop” and he had probably had the owl for at least 50 years. But once owls went on the endangered species act, it then became illegal to own anything that had owl parts in it. They eventually dropped the charges, but he never got his owl back.