“I acted out of necessity on October 10, 2022 to secure my survival, the survival of my family, my community, and life on the planet. And now I am, on purpose, in some classic good trouble.”
On October 10th, 2022 Andy was arrested taking part in a Declare Emergency blockade of a highway outside of Washington D.C. They sought to pressure Biden to declare a climate emergency and make good on his promises to address climate change.
Since then Andy has attempted to utilize the Necessity Defense – that his actions were legally justified because the crimes he had committed were less harmful than the imminent global harm posed by climate change.
Despite lining up expert witnesses, extensive documented evidence, and footage of the action- the judge denied Andy’s usage of these in court.
In defiance, Andy left the courtroom and refused the terms of the judge.
On 4/26/23 Andy Hinz began serving a concurrent suspended sentence of 60 days. Due to time served and concurrence- he is expected to be in jail for 30 days.
Andy broke the law in order to protect all life on earth. His final defiance of the court room is a continuance of this fight against an amoral system. Putting the law itself on trial.
“The State might say I could have done something different, something legal to secure my survival. But the fact is everything everyone is trying is simply not working, and, as you will hear, our emissions are still increasing and we are still expanding fossil fuel production despite overwhelming evidence we must stop doing that. I will testify that my actions were carefully chosen.”
You can support Andy by writing to him! This document will have the most up to date details:
https://tinyurl.com/2s4hx3yx
You can read Andy’s full Necessity Defense statement and other court details here: