WOOD Radio Local News

WOOD Radio Local News

WOOD Radio Local News

 

Oil pipeline opponent uses ‘necessity defense’ _ What is it?

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — An American Indian activist and former U.S. congressional candidate in North Dakota accused of inciting a riot during protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline says he’ll seek to present a “necessity defense” — justifying a crime by arguing it prevented a greater harm.

Chase Iron Eyes has pleaded not guilty to inciting a riot and criminal trespassing. He could face more than five years in prison if convicted at trial in February. The pipeline has since begun carrying oil from North Dakota through South Dakota and Iowa to Illinois.

Pipeline protesters who try the necessity defense typically argue that the greater harm is climate change. Iron Eyes, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, says he hopes to show that civil disobedience was his only option to resist a pipeline’s incursion on his ancestral lands. The prosecutor in the case didn’t respond to a request for comment. A judge will hear arguments Nov. 3.

Full Story: AP News


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