The Trump Justice Department’s
years-long, taxpayer-funded mission to prosecute a volunteer for
providing humanitarian aid to two people who had recently crossed the
southern border has once again failed. A jury acquitted
humanitarian worker Scott Daniel Warren on felony charges of harboring undocumented immigrants. “The not guilty verdict came after just 2.5 hours of deliberation,” the Arizona Daily Star reports, “and
it was greeted with cheering, laughter and tears from Warren’s
supporters and fellow aid workers, including a contingent of clergy
members from across the country.”
This is the second time the Trump administration had tried to
imprison Warren for his work with the humanitarian group No More Deaths,
which leaves water, food, and other life-saving supplies for migrants
in the searing border desert. Warren’s first trial ended in a hung jury this past June, where he faced up to 20 years on two
counts of felony harboring and one count of felony conspiracy for
giving food, water, and clean clothes to two men in Arizona. Not
satisfied with failing to criminalize basic humanity, federal
prosecutors announced they would once again try him.
”In closing arguments this week, defense lawyer Gregory Kuykendall said Warren only provided humanitarian aid,” the Arizona Daily Star
continued. “’Being a good Samaritan is not against the law. Practicing
the golden rule is not a felony,’ Kuykendall told the jury.” The jury
agreed.
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