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The Guardian’s Nicky Woolf came to Keene last week to report on the Pumpkin Fest riots and the police response. His article poignantly asks, “Did police’s militarised response to a small town pumpkin patch riot just make it worse?” According to the people Woolf interviewed, yes, they absolutely did. Here’s the full article, thanks to Woolf and the Guardian for the excellent coverage of this issue. (more…)
Rich Paul
I always thought the language in RSA 519:23-a (commonly referred to as the jury nullification statute) was weak. In fact, the state’s attorney argued in front of the NH supreme court that before it passed into law, the legislature stripped all mention of jury nullification from the original bill. From the state’s perspective, their attorney was correct, and the supreme court unanimously affirmed that the statute is not a jury nullification statute. Here’s their seven-page decision.
The statute in question is a shadow of what it should have been. Perhaps the legislature can try again and get it right this time. Until then, whether or not a defendant will be allowed to tell a jury about nullification (which has happened multiple times thus far in NH) remains up-to-the-judge in the case, it seems. Stay tuned to Free Keene for or NHJury.com for the latest news about jury rights in New Hampshire.
Reason has an excellent take on the news here, and FIJA’s opinion is here.
It’s been an intense several days for local independent newsman Jared Goodell. He’s been interviewed by and featured on many national media outlets for his heroic role in handling the assaults and threats by Pumpkin Fest organizer Ruth Sterling. (The video has gone viral.) This morning in addition to appearing locally on WKBK with Dan Mitchell, Jared took part in a hilarious interview on WGN-AM in Chicago:
Yesterday he had an excellent interview on Fox N’ Friends:
He also appeared on CNN and in another FOX report as well.
While on the streets of Keene this afternoon, I saw Jared Goodell pull into the parking lot of Charlie Donahue, a local liberty-friendly attorney. I caught up with Jared and managed to get a question out I’d been wanting to ask about his now viral video where Pumpkin Fest organizer Ruth Sterling assaults and threatens him. Though Jared has previously stated that he did not plan on suing Sterling, perhaps his plans have changed. Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest on the Pumpkin Fest 2014 riots and the surrounding drama.
Pumpkin Fest organizer Ruth Sterling made international headlines this weekend when during a live broadcast from her event on Cheshire TV by local newsman Jared Goodell, she stormed onto the set, grabbed at his microphone and threatened to take him off the air. With over 100,000 views and climbing, the original clip is one of the top five most popular videos of all time on the Free Keene youtube channel.
Sterling was interviewed this morning on WKBK by Dan Mitchell where she complained that the original viral clip did not show the context of what made her storm the set. If you recall from the clip, she alleged that Jared had been “inciting” people, “alarming” pumpkin fest attendees, and “self-promoting”. As you can see in this clip which shows what came before the original, he’s doing none of those things – he’s merely reporting what he’s heard and reading a statement from the president of Keene State College. All I’ve edited out of the following clip is the commercial break, which lasted for about 1 minute:
Jared says of the newly released clip: (more…)
After I got off-the-air from my live Saturday radio program (on which we discussed the initial Pumpkin Fest 2014 riots), I headed back down to the college. At the time, there was a helicopter broadcasting a message to disperse or be arrested. I arrived at the gateway to Keene State College – Winchester St. to witness a huge throng of police marching down the street. I quickly pulled out my camera and began to record:
After walking around the nearest building on campus, in full view of the line of police, activists walked onto campus and right back over to Winchester St. We continued walking west on Winchester and no cops said anything to us there. However, we again went on campus and came back out on Madison St., on the west end of the college. Here there were several police standing around the intersection and one of them told me we couldn’t pass, despite college students walking down Winchester St. immediately behind them. (more…)
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