Environmental Law

An Interesting Twist . . .

By Walter James

Review the case and history of United States v. McKittrick, 142, F3rd 1170 (9^th Cir. 1998).   Or, better yet, read Ed Newcomer and Marie Palladini?s article in the ABA SEER EECC?s newsletter on the Endangered Species Act.  http://www.abanet.org/environ/committees/environcrimes/newsletter/jan09/EECC_Jan09.pdf

Newcomer is a senior special agent for the US Fish and Wildlife Service and Palladini is an assistant professor of criminal administration at California State University at Dominguez Hills. 

The article describes a ?giant loophole? in the mens rea of the criminal provisions of the ESA as applied by the USDOJ.  Specifically, it describes a USDOJ ?self-imposed requirement that it must prove that the defendant knowingly killed a specific species of animal, to wit, an endangered one.? 

This would, in effect, provide a significant defense to any prosecution.  As the authors describe: ?If you kill a grizzly bear, claim you believed you were shooting a black bear.? 

Interesting . . ..

More later.

As always, feel free to contact me via e-mail at walter.james@jamespllc.com.

WDJiii 

Full post as published by Environmental Crimes Blog on February 16, 2009 (boomark / email).