A Washington DC court convicted a repeat-offender in May for a crime that could have seen him spend years in prison.
The offender was not a BP executive found guilty of criminal negligence over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Nor was it any other environmental vandal.
It was climate change activist Ted Glick.
His crime was to hang two banners off the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in September last year.
The banners were intended to send a message to the Senators, urging them to vote for climate change legislation that had already passed the House of Representatives, said Baristanet.com on June 16. The banners read 鈥淕reen Jobs鈥 and 鈥淕et to Work鈥.
Glick is a long-time environmental activist and writer. He is policy director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.
Glick鈥檚 convictions were for 鈥渄isplaying a banner in a public building鈥 and 鈥渄isorderly conduct鈥.
The US Attorney General鈥檚 office pushed for higher penalties on the grounds that Glick had been convicted on two other occasions after peaceful sit-in protests at government buildings, said the July 2 New Jersey Star-Ledger.
Prosecutors said Glick could face up to three years jail.
At the July 6 sentencing hearing, Judge Frederick Weisberg decided not to give Glick a jail sentence. He received a 30 day suspended sentence and a year鈥檚 probation.
He will also have to carry out 40 hours of community service and pay a US$1100 fine.
Glick said he was pleased with the judge鈥檚 decision.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 regret the action in any way鈥, he told the July 6 Star-Ledger. 鈥淭he action was needed. If anything, it鈥檚 a shame it took the Senate so long to finally focus on the issue of climate change.鈥
Hundreds of supporters sent letters to Weisberg to urge a lenient sentence.
Chesapeakeclimate.org said on July 2 that Glick鈥檚 supporters included actors Susan Sarandon and Danny Glover, NASA climate scientist James Hansen, climate campaigners Bill McKibben and Gus Speth, science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson and Catholic Bishop Thomas Gumbleton.
Before his May trial, Glick rejected an offer from the Attorney General鈥檚 office to plead guilty and serve a 30-day sentence. 鈥淭here's no way I would accept that anyone should go to jail for 30 days for hanging a banner鈥, he told Baristanet.com on June 16.
Glick鈥檚 laywer, Ann Wilcox, accused US authorities of double standards over the case, said the Star-Ledger. 鈥淲hy put someone in prison for dropping a lightweight silk banner when BP is polluting the Gulf and taking away peoples鈥 livelihood?鈥, she said.