She is, in the eyes of the law, the US’ most dangerous eco-terrorist — a self-confessed serial arsonist who resorted to fire and destruction to register her opposition to the fur industry and genetically modified crops.
But to those who know her and to some legal experts, the 22-year jail term handed to Marie Mason, 47, is a consequence of the US’ preoccupation with terrorism in the post-9/11 world.
She is serving the longest sentence of any convicted animal rights or environmental militant, including several activists responsible for greater destruction.
“It is obvious the government is trying to send a message — to have a chilling effect, not only on my action, which of course transgressed the laws, but also on 30 years of above-ground actions in the environmental rights spheres,” Mason told a reporter in her first interview since she was sentenced last month.
Mason was convicted on the evidence of her fellow arsonist and ex-husband, Frank Ambrose. He was jailed for nine years.
“It’s very, very sad. These are karmic things that Frank will have to deal with on his own,” she said.
The fire Mason and Ambrose started at Michigan State University on Dec. 31, 1999, caused nearly US$1 million in damage to buildings and equipment, but no death or injury.
The target was the office of the director of a genetically modified crop research program into moth-resistant food crops for Africa funded by the US Agency for International Development and the biotechnology company Monsanto.
Professor Daniel Clay, who worked at the institute in 1999 and is now the director, said the attack had a severe impact on the staff.
“It really was a shock. People were frightened and we asked ourselves, how close did this come to physically harming someone?” Clay said.
However, Mason’s lawyer, John Minock, who filed an appeal against the sentence last week, argued that 22 years was excessive. Mason got a much longer sentence than several militants recently convicted of setting fire to logging camps and vehicles in Oregon and Washington states — including Stanislas Meyerhoff, who received 13 years for starting 11 fires and causing US$30 million in damage.
“Giving her a 22-year sentence is like using a cannon to shoot a mouse,” Minock said. “She is a 47-year-old, mild-mannered woman with no previous criminal record other than trespassing.”
The FBI had singled out militant environmentalists and animal rights activists as domestic security threats even before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Since then, the courts have used domestic terrorism laws to stiffen the punishment for politically inspired violence.
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