A Minnesota jury acquitted seven anti-war protesters of trespassing charges stemming from a protest at the Minneapolis National Guard recruiting office in March 2008.
The protest followed a march on the University of Minnesota campus on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war. After the march, a group of protesters staged a demonstration in the hallway outside the locked National Guard recruiting center.
Sixteen activists were arrested and charged with trespassing. Seven protesters chose to fight their case with the help of the National Lawyers Guild. They presented a “claim of right” defense, arguing that the constitution protected their right to protest against the war in the National Guard recruiting office.
One defendant, Bill Drebenstedt, a former U.S. army reservist and National Guardsman, explained: “I believed when I went to that building that I had every right to be there … I was obligated to express my opposition to an illegal and immoral war.”
