In my opinion most people base their remarks on rumor and innuendo, very few know the actual facts of the case and whether they do know the facts or not an awful lot of people form their opinions on generalities rather than the specifics of the Hammond case.
1. The Hammonds were never charged with poaching animals because there was never any proof that they had in fact poached deer.
2. They were convicted of starting two fires, one each on two separate occasions over the span of several years.
3. The first fire was a weed burn-off that burned 139 acres of Federal Land adjacent to the Hammond's property.
4. The second fire was a back-fire that was an attempt to stop a lightening caused wildfire from burning their stored winter hay, it burned "about" 1 acre of Federal land (this was during the Krumbo Butte fire which burned over 1,000 acres of Federal land) that was valued at less than $100.
5. This second fire ("about" 1 acre) was the incident that the Federal prosecutors claimed had endangered fire fighters.
6. The Hammonds were taken to court on 19 counts of arson over a 20 year period. After failing to successfully prosecute them for two years the Government changed the charges to 9 counts involving four fires over about 6 years. Basically the Government recognized that they were not going to win so they changed their charges hoping to have a better chance of conviction.
7. The Hammonds were acquitted for all but 2 of the 9 charges.
8. The relative that testified against them did so 8 years after he helped light the 2001 weed burn, the same relative is now 30 years old and still can't find continuous employment. His testimony was partially refuted by another witness that was able to prove that the Hammond boy was either in error or lying.
9. Rather than prosecuting and sentencing the Hammonds under BLM land use statutes the Federal Government decided to file charges under the Federal legal guidelines developed for terrorists.
10. 3 years after being convicted for setting the two fires that damaged Federal property, which the Hammonds admitted to, the 9th Circuit Court decided that they had to be re-sentenced and 2 years after that, in 2016, they were each sentenced to 5 years in Federal prison.
These facts were obtained by reading many documents from the courts, lawyer briefs, court summaries, news articles etc.. These facts, in conjunction with the well documented attempts by the Federal Government to increase the size of the wildlife preserve by forcing private property owners out, make me feel that the real problem is government over-reach and harassment. I don't see where the Hammonds have done anything that I wouldn't have done and I don't see any intention to violate the law.
Anybody that doesn't see a problem with the Federal government hounding someone for almost 20 years over less than 140 acres of burned grass and mesquite just doesn't have any understanding of the threat that this kind of aggressiveness presents to all of our freedoms.
