Climate activist group asks Biden to pardon four demonstrators charged with felonies

An international climate organization on Friday asked President Joe Biden to pardon four climate activists who have been charged with felonies from demonstrations, before he leaves office later this month.

All four demonstrators were arrested and convicted of committing crimes in Washington, D.C., and include the two activists who dumped red paint on the protective case of the U.S. Constitution at the National Archives last year.

The two activists charged over the National Archives are Donald Zepeda, who was sentenced to two years in prison, and Jackson Green, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison for felony destruction of government property. 

The other two were charged with conspiracy to commit an act against the United States and injury to a National Gallery of Art exhibit, by damaging the case around Edgar Degas’s sculpture Little Dancer Aged Fourteen in 2023. One of them has not been tried, but the other was banned from all monuments and museums in the U.S. and sentenced to 60 days in prison.

The climate organization Climate Rights International argued the sentences were part of a trend of charging activists for more serious crimes when they were acts of civil disobedience, according to The Hill.

“The United States has a long history of peaceful protest, from the Suffragettes to the civil rights movement, to address urgent social and political issues,” Brad Adams, executive director at Climate Rights International, said in a statement. “Climate activists today are acting in that tradition yet have faced ridiculous charges of conspiracy against the U.S. and disproportionate prison sentences. President Biden should follow the logic of his own strong calls for climate action and pardon them.”

The pardoning request comes after Biden pardoned 39 people last year, and his son Hunter Biden, and commuted the sentences of 37 individuals on death row.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.