Oral arguments for a federal appeal in the high profile case of environmental activist Jessica Reznicek will be heard by the 8th circuit court of appeal on May 13. In a defining moment for the climate justice movement and for all civil rights, the court will decide whether or not to uphold a “domestic terrorist enhancement” that an Iowa court applied to Reznicek’s prison sentence. Reznicek is expected to argue that the terrorism enhancement was both illegally and unjustly applied.
In 2016, Jessica Reznicek took action to stop the construction of Dakota Access Pipeline by dismantling construction equipment and pipeline valves. In 2021 she was sentenced to 8 years in prison with a domestic terrorism enhancement.
Under normal conditions Jess would have been sentenced to 37 months, but the terrorism enhancement resulted in a sentence of 96 months. She was also ordered to pay $3.2 million in restitution to Energy Transfer corporation.
The appeal is supported by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), National Lawyers Guild, Water Protectors Legal Collective, and the Climate Defense Project. “If Jessica Reznicek’s acts can be punished as terrorism,” says an amicus brief filed by CCR, “the United States will have moved so far past the international consensus as to be operating in a completely different realm.”
- WHAT: Oral arguments for federal appeal, U.S.A. v. Jessica Reznicek. Case # 21-2548
- WHO: United States Court of Appeals- 8th Circuit, DAPL activist Jessica Reznicek
- WHEN: Friday, May 13 at 8:30 CST
- WHERE: St Paul, Minnesota United States Court, Courtroom 5A. Closed to the public in person. Listen in by calling 1-888-363-4749 Code 4423562. Jessica Reznicek is 5th on the docket.
In 2017 Jessica Reznicek and a partner from the Catholic Worker Movement publicly claimed responsibility for acts of vandalism against the Dakota Access Pipeline. In February, 2021 she pled guilty to a single count of Conspiracy to Damage an Energy Facility. In June, 2021 an Iowa judge imposed a “terrorism enhancement” at the prosecution’s request and sentenced Reznicek to 8 years in prison with restitution of over $3 million to be paid to Energy Transfer LLC. No one was injured by Reznicek’s acts of civil disobedience.
Although federal courts have ruled the Dakota Access Pipeline was constructed illegally, excessive punishment for people like Jessica, who tried to stop it, is on the rise – and scrutiny is growing of fossil fuel industry influence in the process. Wrote Jessica in a 2021 statement to the court, “I am not a political person. I am certainly not a terrorist. I am simply a person who cares deeply about an extremely basic human right that is under threat: Water.”
To support Jess’s legal case, visit https://supportjessicareznicek.com/.
Photo: Occupy Des Moines – Day 113: Jess Reznicek Arrested, by Justin Norman. Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
When I was an Earth First! campaigner in the 1980s, I told fellow campaigners once that even if we got the strongest legal protections possible for all the wilderness and widllife for which we were fighting, the establishment would still kill and destroy everything if push came to shove and they wanted their “resources” (aka to sane people as land, air, water, plants, or nonhuman animals). This is very similar. An action that should have been at most a minor misdemeanor in any sane rational system becomes an act of “terrorism” in an evil system that’s killing the Earth and everyone living here (and by “everyone,” I mean all life, not just humans; thanks to Derrick Jensen for correcting my vocabulary on this). The establishment/empire is now grossly overreacting to anything that could challenge its power, as we can clearly see with all the censorship and cancel culture that’s going on. On environmental issues, it’s getting to the point where if you even consider that some harmful project should be shut down, you’re called a “terrorist.”
As a fellow “terrorist,” I must point out that billions of all species are currently conspiring (which literally means “breathing together”), to save and protect the planet that created us, by any means necessary.
The true terrorists are every extraction industry, and the countless industries that depend upon Earth rape for their existence.
To repeat what I have said here before, ours is the only species that creates inorganic waste, and then dumps it into and onto Earth’s collective body of air, land, and water, killing trillions of other living organisms in the process. Ours is the only species that defines rape as “development,” and the unnatural gains we derive from rape and plunder as “profit” and “progress.”
Thus, any act to stop this insane destruction of the biosphere is an act of love and self-defense, justified and demanded by natural law, which overrules all the legal facades and contrivances of civilization.
Is Jessica Reznicek a terrorist? No. However, when someone sets fire to tractors and other earth moving vehicles (5 in total) and causes an estimated 3.2 million dollars in damage, of course the government sees that as “terrorist” activity. I remember when an “Earth First” activist set fire to a number of SUV vehicles; he\she may have set fire to all of the vehicles in the sales lot? When people use such means, people in law enforcement look no further. The means prevents them and most of america from asking “why did they do this?” In other words, in Jessica’s case, the “means” used gets the press attention, not the cause.
Jessica us very experience Activest . She was trying protest water and earth from pollution . We have seen this world over major Oil companies and BP Exxon Shell Will eventually when finished with the Gasoline, oil Liquidify gas . They will control energy sector as wholesale supplying to energy companies and also Solar energy and wind farms and recharging stations for electronic Automobiles and cars Trucks . The same big shareholder in Hedgefunds used Trustfund Tax Havens hide I’ll gotten gains . They also help formulate wars since trade that we Know began in 1600 . Then there is OPEC +they are all part . Demonstrates what has been happening for long time . Bull is sacrificed to bear good times into bad rich get richer .5 that controls everything else Henery Kissener said you control wealth Control Military and Agriculture food . They decided then what happens two sides of same coin . BildeBergs and many other steering groups are used implement hidden plan websites tell very little. Jessica found what she was up against in George Orwell 1984 two world powers big brother block of countries they part hidden hand . Four horse is what Technology social media companies and chip will come from health to money to connections to the Social Media virtual Matrix reality .This will start first as digital currency and million people out work worldwide and many drones and Robots controls populateion also for elites . Package into advertisement you need part this for Brainwashing . Most people will not question this worldwide . Hopefully Jessica gets time read lots book 📚 books sooner she is out better . She can Return her family and help train future young activists in Friday for Future and other activists movements and she may want have children . Hopefully she can be freed to help influence younger generations to come in the fight for freedom . We all know is good there evil what ever name won’t call things . Jessica Reznicek is a brave Women .