Whether or not they were exercising good land management I do not know. A jury unanimously convicted them of arson, though.
What is indisputable is that they did NOT face double jeopardy. They were tried once and convicted. The minimum penalty for the crime they were convicted of was 5 years in prison. They knew this and the judge knew this. Their lawyers argued the mandatory minimum was unconstitutional and the trial court judge,looking for a way to get around the minimum mandatory a be lenient, went along. This is an extremely unusual action for a trial judge. Normally the minimum mandatory sentence would be handed out and would be appealed to a higher court.
The government appealed and the higher court correctly ruled that the judge violated the law and ordered the mandatory minimum be imposed.
Bottom line is the judge tried to give them illegally light sentences and the appeals court slapped him down. That is not “double jeopardy”.
And before that, the BLM harassed the Hammonds for a decade, closing their roads, taking them to court over water rights....the Hammonds won.
Make no mistake, the BLM is in the business of closing ranches and adding to their federal land stockpile in the west.
Too many creepers here are clueless about this assault on the west.