KGMI News
BURLINGTON, WASH. – A judge denies a request from a defendant to allow climate scientists and civil disobedience experts to testify at trial.
Kenneth Ward is charged with breaking into and tampering with an oil pipeline facility near Burlington last October.
The Skagit Valley Herald reports defense lawyers requested those witnesses as part of what is called a “necessity defense.”
A “necessity defense” asserts that a criminal act was necessary to avoid harm and that no legal alternative was available.
Ward is one of several environmental activists who targeted pipelines that move Canadian tar sands oil into the United States.