New Zealand Ploughshares activists win unexpected “not guilty” verdict / Waging Nonviolence

In my book The Christian and Jury Duty I discuss both John Howard Yoder's concept of revolutionary subordinationism, in which one does an unlawful action for the sake of conscience fully expecting to receive the consequences, and jury nullification, the legal doctrine by which a jury refuses to convict even though the defendant admits guilt. Both were at work in New Zealand in the case reported below.

New Zealand Ploughshares activists win unexpected “not guilty” verdict / Waging Nonviolence

These protesters performed a nonviolent direct action to call attention to New Zealand's participation in a secret electronic surveillance network. This network is one source of intelligence which makes it possible for drones to target people in their homes. Their action did not prevent the secret base from functioning, but made its existence more difficult politically.

Juries in the English common law tradition followed by New Zealand and the United States are free to acquit guilty people when they believe the law under which they are being prosecuted is wrong, or is being misused. It is an important check on the power of prosecutors to persecute.

More on flotation

The snowshoes arrived, and so did lots more snow in the mountains, so yesterday we went up to Kings Canyon National Park to see whether we had a winner or not. The road was clear, the sky was clear enough, and we got to Grant Grove with no hassles.

It took a bit of figuring out, but the snowshoes went on as designed, and we were off. We walked out into the meadow behind the restaurant onto several feet of pristine snow. The big shoes sank into the snow maybe 3 inches and worked as advertised. The binding is articulated so you use as normal a walking motion as one would expect with life rafts on your feet. My wife and I both sank into the snow about the same distance and neither of us had any trouble to speak of. The built-in crampons kept us from sliding when going up or down hills and balance was no problem.

We walked across the meadow and into the campground on the other side. I was noticing that this activity used some leg muscles that are different from my usual activities. Then we came across a snowshoe trail broken by others and found out why it's nice to go in groups. We had been breaking trail all the way across the meadow, and that is a lot more work than following a broken trail.

We quit after an hour, figuring it was best not to overdo on our first foray. It was a successful excursion. Now we are planning the next, longer trek. More snow is predicted this week. I plan to float across the top. You can see more photos at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=196550&id=656665475&l=b80217909b