Yesterday, the Washington Court of Appeals issued a decision to reverse and remand the felony conviction of Ken Ward, sending his case back to the lower courts for a third trial. The Court of Appeals found that Ken was denied his constitutional rights when the judge in the lower court prevented him from using a necessity defense. A necessity defense would have enabled expert witnesses in climate science, politics and history to testify in trial about the known scientific facts of climate change and the ineffectiveness of legal alternatives to adequately address the threat. Ken Ward is the main character of The Reluctant Radical, and one of the five valve turners who took direct action to manually shut down the flow of all US tar sands oil pipelines on October 16, 2016.
The Court of Appeals found that Ken had legal standing to use the necessity defense based on several factors, including that he “offered sufficient evidence to show that the harms of global climate change were greater than the harm of breaking into Kinder Morgan’s property.” (Ya think?) The full document from the Court of Appeals can be found via the button below and is highly recommended reading.
The State of Washington has 30 days to appeal the decision to the Washington Supreme Court. It has 20 days to file a motion with the Court of Appeals to reconsider. If no appeal is filed, the State may refile the charges, sending Ken back to Skagit County for a third trial, this time having the ability to present a necessity defense.
Video From Ken’s 1st Hearing When Denied the Necessity Defense
When making a film, there is always an awful lot of important clips that don’t make it into the final cut. In honor of this news from the Court of Appeals, I’m sharing with you two clips from Ken’s hearing in January 2017, when he was denied the use of the Necessity Defense by Judge Rickert. Accept my apologies in advance about the quality of the audio.
Judge Rickert says that the threat of climate change isn’t imminent, and furthermore, there is “tremendous controversy” that climate change even exits.
When viewing this next clip, keep in mind that the actions taken by the valve turners in shutting off all the tar sands pipelines halted the flow of oil equivalent to 15% of the US daily consumption of oil.
Judge Rickert describes his reasoning in denying the use of the necessity defense in Ken Ward’s trial.
“The Reluctant Radical is the most striking environmental documentary I’ve seen to date- and I have seen plenty. It is an absolute must-see.” -D. Schwartz, The Marin Post
“A film that is both a vivid portrait of an activist and an addictive suspense thriller—a Hitchcockian riff on An Inconvenient Truth….” -Willamette Week
“Grayzel wants us to ponder whether this one-man mission to save the world makes Ward a radical. ‘Yes’ is too easy an answer, and the wrong one if you ask Ward. He has to stop climate change at any cost. His every action is one of common sense. Maybe we’re the crazy ones.” –The Missoula Independent
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