A judge will allow anti-war demonstrators to use a unique defense during their trial in Tacoma.
Two women were arrested and charged with civil disobedience after they used their bodies to try to block Stryker vehicles outside Fort Lewis in August 2008. The vehicles were returning from Iraq through the Port of Tacoma and were on their way to be repaired at Fort Lewis.
The two women, Patricia Imani and Brianna Herrera, admit that they lay in the offramp from Interstate 5 in an effort to block the Strykers.
Both women said they should be found not guilty because they had to protest and although it was illegal, it prevented a greater harm.
“We have an obligation to resist, not just a right to resist. That is what these protests have been about since we started to do the human blockades against the Strykers,” Imani said.
“People have been against this war for over eight years and the fact that people came out to resist these wars and take responsibility and stop the crimes of their government, those are the people who should be supported,” Herrera said.
The judge just ruled that the women will be able to use the necessity defense. “That our clients did what they did to prevent the commission of a greater harm,” said defense attorney Larry Hilde , referring to the Iraq War.
“I think this is exciting and this enables us to show that this act of civil resistance. Breaking a lesser law is very important to uphold higher laws,” Imani said.
The trial of two anti-war activists that was to feature the testimony of an historic figure from the Vietnam War era ended in a mistrial Wednesday when a juror allegedly made eye contact with and waved to a witness who had come into court to testify.
Pierce County District Court Judge Margaret Vail Ross said she had no choice but to declare a mistrial in the cases of Patricia Imani of Olympia and Brianna Herrara of Seattle…
SondraK, unapologetic Lympian Slayer 
